Isaiah 61:3 ‘ To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;’

DAILY READING Matthew 28; Deuteronomy 9-10; Job 8

While there are several wonders in praise, there are also enemies of praise which could stop the miracles of God in our lives. One of these is unforgiveness.
In her best-selling book ‘Left to tell’ Immaculée Ilibagiza recounted her struggle with unforgivenss.
Immaculée is a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Her family was brutally murdered during the killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.
For 91 days, she and seven other women hid silently in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. During this time, Immaculee discovered the power of prayer.
When she finally emerged from her hideout and heard the terrible news of her family’s death, for a long time she struggled to forgive their murderers. She was more appalled to learn that the killers were people who had been close to her family.
However after a process of journeying into deep prayers, she finally came to the point where she realized she couldn’t truly praise and worship God except she obeyed His commandment of forgiveness.
When she learned that the man who had killed her mother was in a local jail, Immaculée went to visit him.
As she waited for the jailers to bring out the murderer,, the official in charge of the jail, who was also a Tutsi survivor, gave her the permission to slap the murderer and spit on him. However, when the man came into the room in rags, looking haggard, she only felt pity for him and even began to cry. She then told him that she had forgiven him.
The Tutsi prison official grew angry with Immaculee and questioned how she could be able to forgive the killer of her mother.
But after Immaculee left, her act of forgiveness began to affect this Jail official.
He later located her office at the United Nations quarters in Kigali, to tell her how what she did had deeply transformed him.
Indeed Immaculee’s ability to forgive caused her to experience God’s overwhelming blessings. It made her to emerge as a victor and not a victim from the genocide and led to a triumphant end to her story.

Sometimes, people pass through awful, painful tragedies in life that seem to justify their harboring hatred and unforgiveness.
In our own lives, we can sometimes allow ourselves to feel bouts of bitterness and resentment toward those that have deeply hurt us. However, no matter how legitimate our reasons, God makes no allowances for unforgiveness or bitterness in a believer’s life.
One of the key strategies of the devil is to keep people depressed through past traumatic experiences, so as to weigh them down with the spirit of heaviness.

Isaiah 61:3 tells us that the spirit of heaviness needs to be exchanged with the garment of praise.

As believers, we must avoid anything that tries to weigh us down spiritually. This is why it is important to forgive people no matter what they have done to us.
We must remember that Jesus already said that offenses will come. Therefore it does not really matter why someone may choose to hurt us, what matters is that we recognize that forgiveness is a necessity.
Forgiveness causes the windows of Heaven to open over us and releases blessings of peace and joy into our lives..
The forgiving process means letting go and leaving all judgment to God.

Romans 12:20 says “If; your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

Forgiveness has less to do with the guilty person and has more to do with our willingness to obey God no matter the cost.
As we draw close to the end of this year, it is a good time to look back and make a deliberate choice to forgive anyone who has hurt us. It is certainly time to let go and let God.
When we realize the vast extent of how much Jesus has forgiven us, it will make it easy to forgive others.
As we learn to let go of hurts, the spirit of heaviness will lift from us and we will receive the garment of praise that will enable us to truly worship God in spirit and truth.

PRAYER: Lord, please uproot every form of bitterness and unforgiveness in me. Please fill my heart with your peace and joy. May your love constantly flow through me and cause me to live as a reflection of Christ in Jesus Name.

QUOTE;
Your attitude always determines your altitude in life. -WORDBITE 222.