Rebuilding

Carolyn Lewis
Posted 1/8/21

Home improvement shows on TV are always taking something old and tearing out walls to make something new and more inviting.

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Rebuilding

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Home improvement shows on TV are always taking something old and tearing out walls to make something new and more inviting.  I can relate to that because I’ve had that done in my own home. When we bought our house years ago we wanted to make a few changes to make it our own.  I had a wall taken out that really opened up the living room and gave us more room and made it lighter and more pleasant.  We also added on so that I would have a large well-lit studio to work in.  And there have been necessary changes along the way to keep our home updated.  

As I look back over the years of my relationship with God, I am amazed at the changes and rebuilding He’s had to do to bring me to this point in my life.   I’ve had some walls built up that were limiting the light that God wanted to bring into my life.  Those walls were built up by bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness against people who had hurt us deeply over the years.  When I would think about what they had done I would feel anger rising up and feel the hurt and pain all over again.  

The people involved in those hurts weren’t sorry at all for what they did and they weren’t ever going to change, so I finally realized that I needed to ask God to change ME.  And as I prayed He guided me to join Bible studies, to study the Bible daily, and to take Bible classes offered that helped me to grow.  

I realized that there was personal responsibility involved if anything was ever to change in my life. Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.”  I began to pray for love and forgiveness for the people that had hurt us so badly.  It was hard at first to even want to forgive them, but as I read more verses about it I began to understand how necessary it was for me to maintain my relationship with God.  After all, He had forgiven me for so much, and taken my sin upon Himself to die on the cross for me, and when I fully realized that, my whole thinking changed.  I could pray for love and forgiveness for others and mean it no matter what they ever did to me.  And as I did that, over time my whole attitude began to change; my demeanor lightened, I felt free to be happy and it was as though there was sunshine in my soul.  Indeed, the Son’s light was brightening up my life. 

I still sense sometimes a wall going up between me and another person and I have to remember to be praying for that person that God will show me His love for them.  It may be something that I am doing that is causing a problem and I need to pray about it and have God show me. It may just be a difference in our personalities, but I just can’t let it go on like I used to.  I need to act on it so that it doesn’t hurt my relationship with God.

Col.1:12-14 “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”