Things Can Only Get Better ~ By Rev. Dino
Hey everyone, I know it’s been a short while since I’ve blogged, but we’ve been up to a lot of really cool stuff with Charging Life and I’ve been busy behind the scenes writing and also coming up with written content for some of the new areas for the Charging Life site. With that said, the other day I was on our Facebook page and we had a discussion going on of why it is that some people are still hurting when they say they’ve given the sadness and hurts to God, but they feel like they still have it and question if that is really the way to get rid of heartache and pain. I had two questions and I have two answers… Here is the first question: “I do give things to god and im the one that ends up getting hurt all the time . How can that be?”
My answer to the lady was, “about an hour ago we posted a quote by Dr. Yousef, which I believe is fitting in answering your question somewhat… “Although enduring storms is never easy, we can often look back on them as some of the more intense periods of growth in our lives. Used rightly, we should come through them with greater faith, commitment, and effectiveness for Christ. Sometimes it is in our darkest and most turbulent storms that we see our greatest victories.” ~Dr. Michael Youssef … God will allow you to go through the storms to bring out in you something he knows is there- but we as humans with our freewill and emotions don’t always allow ourselves to see what God has allowed us to do and how we can grow from those situations. There is the saying, if we put our faith in relying on mankind, we will always be hurt, but if we put our faith in relying on God, we will always eventually be blessed.”
Here was the second follow-up question by a second person: “But how long is eventually? It can be so painful waiting, wishing, hoping, and trusting. Sometimes I wonder if this is really what the answer to all of the hurt is?”
My answer to her was, “God is always the answer… we just don’t always ask the right questions, or look for the answers in the way God provides. We tend to look for answers in the way we want answers and forget that God has his own way of doing things and providing us with answers, means and ways we might not see.
We also tend to not give God enough time to work in our lives at times, like the old saying “Gods timing” and we tend to make decisions for ourselves thanks to that pesky freewill… so a lot of times God will allow us to go through storms in our lives to course correct us, or will allow us to go through the “fire” so He can refine us into the beautiful shape he has for us.
The other problem we have is that we don’t always, because of emotion or freewill getting in our way, see the works God is doing in our lives, through the hurts, sadness and pain. He is not the author of it, but he takes it and uses it to help us learn and grow- but we get in our own way, and because things aren’t exactly how we want them, or we want to see them we cannot clearly see the messages God’s sending us.. and a lot of times, people keep making the same mistakes over and over and over- each time, God attempts to show them a lesson. The other thing about getting over hurt and sadness is believing it is gone and allowing God to fully take it from us, because we do tend to cling on to those emotions. We pray “Dear God, please take this and please take that” but instead of asking, we should believe that God knows the desires of our hearts and the longing to be free of those things holding us back that we hold onto- so a more effective way of praying would be “God THANK YOU for taking the hurt/pain/sadness away from me, and I believe that the holy spirit is working in my heart and mind to clear me of the pain I’ve gone through. Thank you for allowing your Son to die for me and experience the ultimate pain and I believe that Jesus in his understanding of my pain is embracing me in his arms and comforting me, and allowing me to give my hurt/pain/sadness to the holy spirit to burn with the flames of heaven, and replace with hope, joy and happiness. I believe I will be happy and full of joy and hope because you love me and want me to walk within your will.” If we believe and we fully give to God, we can be healed of all hurts and pains. If we plead and beg and cling to them like we still have them, then WE with our freewill attempt to limit Gods work in our life… and the lessons will continue.”
And its true… the lessons do continue, as we cling to the things that God is trying to assist with, correct us with and teach us with. We can eventually fall into a “victim mentality” which we put ourselves into places to get hurt over and over and over… it’s a hard cycle to break because we become accustomed to feeling a certain way, and even some of us get addicted to the highs and lows- just like a substance addiction- of emotions. Once we’ve reached that place we start a pattern that God works in us trying to break- and allowing us to go through the trials over and over. A common theme I’ve run across- and ladies forgive me for using you as an example, but “Why can’t I find a nice guy?” when chances are most of the women who ask that question ARE surrounded by many great guys, but the problem lies with the addiction to the emotional ups and downs with the.. dunndunndunn…”Bad boys” who time after time, end up breaking a ladies heart- thus continuing the victim circle of sadness/hurt and pain. What a lot of ladies aren’t seeing-again- are the good guys, who are there- but because of the addiction- don’t see as viable dating or marriage material and place in the “Friend Zone.”
Again, sorry ladies for using that as an example… so if that did touch a nerve, please keep reading.
The tie-in with everything is, that God has allowed them to go through the hurt and pain, trying to show them and open their eyes to the addiction of hurt, but because He answers in ways that we don’t always perceive, we don’t see the great healthy relationship standing right in front of us.
This can apply to all aspects of hurt in the victim mentality, which God does want to heal of us, but we have to make the choice and actively look for Gods intervention in our lives, have the courage to break the addictions to our emotions and pray like we are believing that we are being healed and delivered from it, and fully and truly believe we are giving it to God; which allows God to do the works we need in our lives and the forming us into the people that God would long for us to be- which he designed. If you are hurting right now, guys or gals… believe in your heart and mind that God is working in your life, that the Lord Jesus is taking your pain and took you pain the day he died on the cross, and believe that the Holy spirit is working in your life to fill you with happiness and joy- and thank God for loving you enough to allow you to go through the trials and tribulations in life to bring you closer to him. And finally…. Keep your eyes open for supernatural doors God is opening in your life and in your situation and have the courage and belief in not only God, but in yourself to step through that new doorway and allow the old one to close behind you. As the 80s’ Howard Jones song says “And do you feel scared – I do, But I won’t stop and falter… Things can only get better” And they will, just have faith in yourself and God, trust Gods promises to you in the Bible and take them to heart and believe it is already better and in Gods hands.
Blessings to you all! Rev. Dino
PS… If you need prayer let us know at pray@charginglife.com and our prayer team will pray for you privately. If you do wish a public prayer posted on facebook, please let us know that is your desire and also what name you’d like used for the prayer. Normally we do first name and last initial. If you’d like something other, such as first name only, a nickname or first and last initial, let us know….We can’t always get to everyone who wishes their prayers to be posted, so know if you don’t see it, our Charging Life prayer team is praying for you.
