prayer and question about disobeying....

[golden bronze]

Someone very dear to me is struggling with something. She has lived a very traumatic life full of abuse. She made some decisions 10 years ago that she knows were not what God wanted her to do, and now God is blessing her with oportunities. She is coming into obedieance of God's will for her life, and is starting over. She refuses to even entertain them because she believes that she still must pay the consequences of what she did in the past. her saying is quote, "if I see anything beautiful I know it is not for me." While I know that God has His own timing, and we can delay our blessings by our disobediance, I believe in God's gace. She says she believes in grace (that's why she is here) but she also knows the cost for disobediance. Because of the things that have happened she refuses to get close to people for fear they will be taken away.

Please pray for her and offer any insight.

 

[kbragg]

Someone very dear to me is struggling with something. She has lived a very traumatic life full of abuse. She made some decisions 10 years ago that she knows were not what God wanted her to do, and now God is blessing her with oportunities. She is coming into obedieance of God's will for her life, and is starting over. She refuses to even entertain them because she believes that she still must pay the consequences of what she did in the past. her saying is quote, "if I see anything beautiful I know it is not for me." While I know that God has His own timing, and we can delay our blessings by our disobediance, I believe in God's gace. She says she believes in grace (that's why she is here) but she also knows the cost for disobediance. Because of the things that have happened she refuses to get close to people for fear they will be taken away.

Please pray for her and offer any insight.

I will pray for your friend. Please refer her to the story of the Prodigal son. He too thought like your friend and thought he should be a servant in his Father's house and was unworthy. The Father restored him to his original position. The truth is this, we can NEVER pay the consequences for our sins because the only payment for sin is death. Jesus Christ took our punishment upon Himself so that we could have life. That is grace. Unmerited favor. No one deserves it, and no one can earn it, it's only God's unconditional love. I will pray that she can allow herself to receive God's love. Yes, He does discipline those He loves, but He doesn't stand around waving a stick saying "you better act right or else!" waiting for you to mess up. Nothing we do is a surprise to God, He knows us better than we know ourselves. Please tell your friend that God is not a man that He should lie, He is not an earthly man that He should seek to abuse her. He wants to love her, she just needs to open herself to receive it. He's not going to hurt her. Bless you for being such a good friend of your friend.

 

[golden bronze]

Thank you K Bragg:

I appreciate the time you took to respond. Your advice is helpful. I've been trying with her for some time, and I don't know what else to do but pray and enocurage and be patient.

The one thing I hear consistently from God is that the theif comes to kill rob and destroy but I come to give you life, and more abundantly. I am just praying that she realizes that God is a God of justic, but he is also mericiful. None of us deserves his favor, but we get it because he is kind, not because we are so good. Because of this grace we a called to forgive others and minister to others.

God Bless you K!