But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash. Matthew 7:26-27
The Way Back Up Stream
How do you make your way to forgiveness when someone you love has made a careless, selfish decision that wounds the soul of your family? How do those in your family make their way back into the heart of your family, into your trust and into your care? Has there been a time in your family life when you questioned if there was even a way back from a decision a family member made that hurt the whole family? How do you make your way to forgiveness when a person does something to hurt children and they just walk away from the debris in the family life created from the explosion of their careless choice? They walk away and don’t look back leaving the family to pick up the pieces. This is the culture of the family in times such as these. The only way UP from here is BOWED down before God. Change it up, bow.
No One Sins Alone
Choices matter in a family life. No one sins alone, the consequences of one sin reverberates throughout the camp of the family. Is there such a thing as bad decisions made by family members that they can’t come back from? Today I feel that way. How can we ever come back from decisions made by family members that rip our family apart as they just walk away without any accountability to the mess left behind? How do you forgive when you see innocent children hurt as one careless decision wounds them sometimes for life. The only way to forgiveness and reconciliation is bowed down before God, surrendering all the hurt to Him.
Sloppy Living
Casually people walk out of your family life, for no good reason at all, purely selfish, looking out for themselves first. I can’t handle this, so I am gone, I have to preserve my life, at the expense of yours. I don’t want to work on my marriage even though there are reconcilable differences, I want to run. It is a disposable family world. If you don’t like it, you walk away and start another one. But what about the children left behind? What about their broken hearts? Who fixes them? God tells us very specifically not to hurt his children, He likened it to being like a millstone around your neck. How do we even begin to forgive others who walk out on their family? One day here, the next day not. It creates a society of broken families when people are not willing to live accountable to God’s way, truth and life. The only way UP for hurting family members is Bowed DOWN before God, yielding every reaction, every bitter hurt to His justice.
Matthew 18:6 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Where Are You?
When this becomes a life pattern where a person in your family life is continually running from responsibility, leaving when things get tough, not working things out that could be reconciled. When is enough an enough? When and how do you stop letting them continue hurting the family? These are tough things that every family has to work through. Life is not easy in times such as these, fleshly reaction is our norm, but how do we respond godly when your heart is so broken? In times such as these, where men seem to be so missing from the family life, where strong men who keep their commitments are few and far apart, it changes up the dynamics of family life. Young boys learning from men who are not strong, courageous, loyal and committed to carry out what they have promised, become very careless men, men who you can’t trust with your heart, men who will break your heart without even thinking twice about it. Men who walk out of their commitments because they don’t want to put the effort in. Where are the strong, courageous, bold, loyal men who stick out their commitments, who fight for their family, who are loyal to God’s ways, truth and life? Where are you men? Men, the only way UP is DOWN, bowed down before God, recommitting your lives wholly-holy to Him.
This Hurts
Has something happened in your life where you feel so hurt by it, you can’t even breathe? You feel sick inside by a horrific decision someone made that hurt so many? Feel like there is not a way back from this? People hurt people, and then hurt people react to those who have hurt them. It makes the family a battle ground of emotions, wounded hearts and people estranged from people. At times it feels not fixable, so we walk away, sometimes alienated for months, sometimes for years, sometimes forever on this side of heaven. Forgiveness is not an easy option for someone who has done something you don’t feel they can come back from. Is forgiveness a feeling? No! Forgiveness is not a feeling, it is a followship of Jesus. We betrayed Jesus, we hurt Jesus, we wounded Jesus, we killed Jesus. Jesus loved us like He had never been hurt by us, like we never even wounded Him. “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!” Jesus made the choice to forgive and He acted on it and went to the cross for us, died our death, taking our death sentence, our sins on Him, so we could live free. Unforgiveness begets bitterness, and bitterness becomes a root of evil in us. This is the trap of the enemy. Side step it. Forgive that person who has devastated your family life and let go and let God work out the way to reconciliation. Forgiveness is our choice; reconciliation is God’s echo to our forgiving. Sometimes forgiveness is a moment-to-moment thing. We have to keep forgiving from every moment to every choice. We have to decide to make the next right choice.
Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, tried to convince them it was best to let Jesus go, but they screamed out over and over, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The guards led away two criminals with Jesus, to execute all three at the same time. When they came to the place that is known as The Skull, the guards crucified Jesus, nailing him on the center cross between the two criminals. While they were nailing Jesus to the cross, he prayed over and over, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” The soldiers, after they crucified him, gambled over his clothing. The criminal hanging on the other cross rebuked the man, saying, “Don’t you fear God? You’re about to die! We deserve to be condemned. We’re just being repaid for what we’ve done. But this man—he’s done nothing wrong!” Then he said, “I beg of you, Jesus, show me grace and take me with you into your everlasting kingdom!” Jesus responded, “I promise you—this very day you will enter paradise with me.” Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, I surrender my Spirit into your hands.” And he took his last breath and died. Luke 23:20-21,32-34,40-43,46
This Is Devastating
People hurt people, but it doesn’t have to end there, it can continue with people forgiving people. The only way UP from a bitter broken heart is bowed DOWN before God, surrendering every feeling, right and hurt we have to Him, and giving Him permission to mend our heart. Yes, it hurts to get hurt, but then you have to make the next right choice. If everyone makes bad choices out of bad choices, then all we have is human badness. We have to make the choice to love, even though we have been so hurt, pressing forward and fighting for what is right, to respond with what is right. Wounded people, hurt people, but people who are wounded by hurting people don’t have to do the same. I find myself at this crossroad. What choice will I make? I have not reacted well to a “this is devastating” situation in my family. I don’t believe there is a way back from this hurt, I can’t see a way back to forgiveness, to family reconciliation. This is my crossroad decision: My only way UP is bowed DOWN to the ONE Who did make the right choice, to love even though He had been hurt. Jesus, The King Of Heaven. Humbly Bow. Make the next right choice. Bow. Surrender To God. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/the-warrior-is-a-child/
See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow in worship to other gods and serve them, 18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not prolong your days in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:15-20
The Only Way UP Is DOWN
There are so many families ripped apart from casual living, disposable relationship in action through really bad choices, to put self-preservation first over others as you leave wounded hearts behind, looking out for yourself first. If I don’t like it, the way things are going, I don’t fight to make it better, I walk out, leave everything behind and start something new. The pattern just continues and continues and the life legacy is one that has a hindsight of wounded people strewn all over their life path. How does this repetition of such a dishonorable pattern of behavior, this cycle of wounding, where wounded people keep hurting people, how does the circle get broken? The only way UP is DOWN, bowing our lives before God, giving Him total access to our lives, becoming wholly-holy His. Family life in times such as these is like a war zone and the casualties are innocent, defenseless children. We adults need to change it up. The only way UP for our families is DOWN, bowed down before God, the only One Who can fix it, the only ONE who can stop the reckless behavior we have towards one another, the only ONE who can help us forgive and reconcile with each other is Jesus. Is there a way UP from this? Yes, there is and it is bowed DOWN before God, He is our Deliverer.
Thank you for stopping into The Bridegroom’s Cafe. We hope you were spiritually nourished from the meal today at The Family Table.There is nothing artificial here, you will find natural, fresh ingredients in each meal, a genuine heart for God in the developing of our meal plans here. Please make sure you share this spiritual meal with another family through your social media voice. The Bridegroom’s Voice is the main voice at this Cafe and Chef Jesus is the preparer of every spiritual meal here. Make sure you don’t miss one. Subscribe to The Bridegroom’s Cafe. We also have guest Chef’s who bring a lot of tasty things from our Rumble Channel, Heart To Heart. God bless you and yours. KimberlyMac