Hello Everybody!
It’s Day 8 of the 21 day Fast and I’m still going on strong. I just give God Praise.
I remember sitting with a woman in my church a couple of weeks ago talking about her situation of last year where she held a grudge against a co-worker that led her to lose her job just because she couldn’t forgive the person for their malicious lies and gossip about her. She felt so much deep regret over her actions because she did something that caused her to get fired. Her supervisor was initially on her side because they were aware of how that other co-worker was stirring up strife in the workplace until she did something unthinkable; She waited 4 hours to confront the person outside their workplace. She literally sat in the car waiting for this person that was irritating her at work brooding on what she was going to say to get all that anger out and tell this person where to go.
When her coworker finally came out at the end of her shift, this lady went out of her car and approached this woman and spoke her mind out of anger to this person which gave her coworker the ammunition she needed to use that confrontation to get her fired. Her supervisor was aware that the lady she had been having issues with was indeed a liar but the fact that she confronted her outside of their place of work in front of everybody made her look bad in that she was giving the company she worked for a bad image.
Oh my heart went out for her as she relayed her story to me. If she had some good friends around her, they should have stopped her from doing what she did because there is safety in a multitude of wise counselors but I guess she didn’t have anyone to really rely on and relied on her own emotions (might and power) which were obviously unstable and unreliable since she was upset at the constant harassment and conniving behaviour of the other individual. I don’t think she’s the only one that’s made this type of mistake before, however, the reason why I’m sharing this example is so that you understand what I mean about how you confront your battles this year. You cannot afford to approach the same attack from last year in this year the same way again. Learn from every lesson that you learn.
Had she dealt with the issue by learning to:
1) not give into the harassment,
2) have self-control and not lash out in anger,
3) not have her pride get in the way,
3) forgive the person that spitefully used her and mocked her she would not have found herself without a job today.
Despite all that…the story is something that’s in the past. The most important thing is to learn from your mistake. The worst thing is going through something like this and not learning that you were in the wrong. I could see that the whole experience had humbled her to the point of feeling woeful, so I told her that this year is a new year for her to get over that mistake. I encouraged her and said that the old thing has passed away, so look towards the new thing God wants to do with her. I believe that God wants to shift her perspective and reposition her to a better job but the first hurdle is learning from the past to move ahead. Let go and let God. I also believe that she needs to understand she can’t treat the same attack the same way again this year. You’ve got to wisen up and be strategic about the way you deal with people who challenge you and your patience. She has to go to God next time.
King Hezekiah did it when he was confronted by Sennacherib, the King of Assyria who jeered at him and mocked him in 2 Chronicles 32. Hezekiah knew that he not only had his own pride to think about, he had the weight of the whole nation of Israel at stake. He consulted with his leaders (wise counselors) knowing that Sennacherib was up to something devious (2 Chronicles 32:3). Could he seriously afford to confront the mockery of Sennachrib for the sake of his own pride or was it better to remain quiet, be strategic and take it up with God. Hezekiah chose to go to God first (2 Chronicles 32:20) and that is what I’m saying…Go to God when you know that you have more than just your mere pride at stake. You’ve got other people depending on you and you haven’t got the time to play around with someone testing your patience. Keep real quiet and go into the upper room with God. Your victory is found when you go on your knees. Don’t lift your nose at your enemy, lower your knees before God because that’s where in your victory lies.
It’s better to hold your tongue if you’ve got nothing good to say rather than say things that you can’t take back. Death and life are in the power of our tongue…The tongue is indeed a difficult thing to bridle; however, we have to make an effort to hold it from saying whatever it wants to say. We either bless ourselves or curse ourselves with the words that we speak out of our mouths.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Notice how God has many “thoughts” toward you. That just goes to show you how much He thinks about you. He loves you so much that he wants you to live a victorious life. So not even a mistake will change His mind about you. He wants to bless you. So don’t feel discouraged and keep moving forward. The devil has a way of using others to discourage you out of your next place of promotion, elevation, or opportunity to network with the right people, but just remember, When GOD is in your situation, there are no limits, AMEN.
I put this song by Israel Houghton and New Breed called It’s Not Over (When God Is In It) to encourage you today and bless your spirit. God Bless You everybody. Love y’all! 😀
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