Forgive, Forget, Be Free!

Okay, here's the deal... When we forgive, we forget, right? It’s like the old saying "Forgive and Forget." Sadly, in this world that's not the case. Forgiving means forgiving someone for the thing they did wrong...but is that going to stop you from forgetting it?? Is it going to stop you from not holding a grudge? When someone says "sorry", I bet they are sometimes thinking, "It’s not going to stop me from doing it again..." or "I don't really mean it." And then when someone says "I forgive you" back, do you think they mean it? Or are they just saying it to get out of the situation and get it "over" with...

I remember a time when I was told to forgive my sister for saying something to me. She said "sorry" and I said "I forgive you"... classic "sorry" and "forgive" line. But after I said that, I went into my room and muttered away to myself about how mean she is, and how I will NEVER forget what she said to me! The "forgetting" part wasn't really happening at that point...Even though I had technically "forgiven" her and the issue was closed, I thought that someday a time would come when I could use that against her...to get HER in trouble. The time never came, well maybe it did, but I forgot what she said to me. SEE! Whether I liked it or not I had forgotten, I had probably forgotten way back when I was muttering to myself in my room. But I was convinced I would never forget...but I naturally did. Our human way of forgiving is kind of confusing...but it doesn't have to be, if only we do it God's way!

When we pray to God and say "sorry, please forgive me, I was wrong for...” He completely forgives you and then forgets on top of that! When I was little, I thought "riiight, how can God COMPLETELY forget what I did, it was absolutely horrible!" But he can, and he will! He actually doesn't even have to think through it, he just forgives and forgets. And through that YOU can be free! It’s that easy! God doesn't think there's this long process you have to go through to be forgiven, in fact you don't really have to do anything! He did it all for you! YOU didn't have to die on a cross, HE DID! YOU didn't need to carry the world's sins on your back, HE DID! And he did it ALL for you! Because he wants you to be free! He wants you to be forgiven; he doesn't want you to worry... He's got your back, all the way. He will forgive your sins and then he will forget them forever! I kind of have a theory on why it's so hard for us to forgive and forget without making a fuss. Mark 2:7 says "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" God is the ONLY one who can forgive us completely and then forget about it completely! It washes away; it’s like throwing ashes into a stream. You are never going to get those ashes back, no matter how hard you try! It’s like that with our sins, like ashes in a stream or in the wind, gone forever! Maybe instead of "Forgive, Forget, Be Free", it could be "Forgive, Forget, Forever Free!

God Bless♥♥

Same heart, Same God; different testimony!

This is just for fun, but I found this and I thought it amazing how innocent I was, and how...oh I don't know, not so much touched by the world! Well, here it is!

"Hi! My name is Amy Elizabeth Peters. I am almost 10! I got saved when I was 3 1/2 years old! My mum was preparing her Discovery lesson about being best friends with God and I said that I wanted to be best friends with God. And so we prayed and I confessed my sins. Then my mum prayed that I would get to know Jesus more and more and I said "and more and more and more!" Jesus is my best friend! I pray to him every day and night. He is my Savior and a helper to me. He helps me in hard times, like when I sometimes feel like following the crowd. Then Jesus reminds me of what is right! And I love him so, so much. I want to get baptized because I want to get to know Jesus more and more and I want to be more like him. I want to obey him because baptism is a command in the bible. I also want Jesus to help me obey my mum and my dad! I LOVE JESUS!!!! Thank you."

Wow, my life was so...so...innocent. And every time I read it I'm hit with the fact that I'm not that same girl. Like yes, I'm still Amy Elizabeth Peters. But I'm changed because I've experienced way, way more in the sense of the world. And some of that I regret and some I'm thankful for. God has taught me to be a stronger woman of God, he's taught me to be a fearless woman of God, and He’s taught me to love differently. He's changed my life and yes, that testimony is still in a way how I want to live my life but at the same time; I want to bring my more mature sense of God into it. I love God with all my heart, and I'm not going to change that...but my life is changed because I’m seeing it through different eyes...not those 9 and 1/2 eyes but 15 year old eyes. It’s a different world and even a different way I see God…but it’s the same God and that’s not going to change!!

God doesn't want us to stay the same, to have the same mindset and the exact way of living. He wants us to change and see him through different experiences and our faith grows through that! Our faith is founded on God and it can mature us to be stronger men and women in God. He will help us and guide us through our lives and whether our testimony is small and innocent and free of trouble or whether it is full of tests and struggles and times where God intervened...those different testimonies’s still represent the same person but just through different eyes, different times, different choices...but thankfully the exact same God! :D

God Bless♥♥

Being Free, the next best thing!

Do you ever feel kind of lost? Kind of like you don't belong?..? Kind of like life doesn't hold in store for you, what it seems to hold for everyone else? You feel: set apart, lost, an outsider...you feel like a Christian.

Now that might seem a bit harsh, a bit unfair towards Christians, but it’s true. We’re not meant to "blend" in, to just be "part of the crowd"...though that’s might be what we want! I remember feeling like that...lost, don't belong; an outsider...and I blamed it all on God. That he was the one making me feel like this, making me struggle. But in a way he was, he knew what would come from it, what would come from that struggle. Freedom would come...!

Maybe you feel the same, tired of being a Christian, having to hold your head high, and do the right things. Maybe you just want to give up and go the "easy" way... maybe you just want God to smooth the road out before you get there. But you see, God knows that the "hard" road will make you stronger, will make you love more, will make you trust more. He doesn't like to see you struggle, he hates it...but He and He alone knows the outcome, He knows what will come from the struggle and the struggles to follow, because struggles will follow. But he will ALWAYS be there with a steady, ready hand to help you up and give you a gentle push in the right direction! He loves you with every inch of his body, with every bit of his heart...and he's NOT going to let you go just because you struggle, when you struggle, he's going to hold tighter!

It’s a hard life out there, full of tempting things, and desirable things. Sometimes we desire, and are led towards things of the world. And to tell the truth, that’s normal for humans...Adam and Eve made sure of that. :P But with Gods strength and help, we as Christians can pull through and go the other way. Now that doesn't mean that we can't live in the world and use the things that it holds for us. The thing is we should live IN the world but not OF the world. If you don't know what that means, we can live here and enjoy what it has for us, but we can't live OF it, which is like not obsessing over malls and things like that, and totally being pulled in for what the world holds for us.

I'll give you a personal example: A while ago, i was pretty obsessed over what I looked like and how I presented myself to other people, especially boys. So, when I would go to the mall, I would obsess over the clothes and the shoes, and say, I NEED TO HAVE THAT! It was crazy; I was totally acting like I was OF the world, PART of the world. But that changed, sure I still like clothes and shoes and don't like to look like a frump, but I make sure that I don't live like that any more, because it was a pretty dangerous way of living. I find myself much happier living IN the world and not OF the world...I find myself enjoying being and outsider, being a Christian... being free!

A random note! ♥

"Forget about guns and forget ammunition//
Cause I’m killing them all on my own little mission//
Now I’m not a saint but I’m not a sinner//
Now everything's cool as long as I’m gettin thinner" (Lily Allen-The Fear)

That's our world, that's what some teenage girls believe..sad right? Everything is fine, as long as I'm thin, and the right height, and have the right kind of hair... Its just sad.... But God makes can make you feel beautiful no matter how you look, because YOU ARE beautiful! God loves YOU!!! I just felt like God wanted me to put that out to all the girls out there, including me! God LOVES you, JUST the way you are!