Notes on "Lord, I Want to be Whole

Step 1: Release the past (continued)

The foundation of ongoing forgiveness.

Stormie writes that in her counseling session she was explained that:

"You don't have to feel forgiveness in order to say you forgive someone. Forgiveness is something you do out of obedience to the Lord because He has forgiven you."

It reminded me of this verse:

We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19

After all isn't forgiveness an act of love. So if He first loved us, first forgave us we must love and forgive others. Is there any sin He will not forgive? Are we worthy? No to both, but we still receive His forgiveness, unconditionally so how can we give anything less then that back to those you have sinned against us? It isn't easy but like Stormie's counselor stated it is an act of obedience to the Lord.

I personally have found it much easier to forgive, to love, to be more self-controlled when I learned that it isn't about the other person or myself, it is about obedience to the Lord. Funny how that simple truth that I knew all along but never really held onto frees me from so much. I still have a ways to go and I could talk about obedience to the Lord is every aspect of life from what you watch, how you spend your time, what you say, etc. but we will touch on all that in our journey to becoming a Prv31Lady. For now it is simply that when you grasp that truth and change your thinking to His thinking suddenly everything you say and do, you start to ask yourself if it is in obedience to the Lord. My answer is no too many times then I want to admit. How about you? But the first step is to be asking yourself. Next is to be obedient. Soon your saying yes more then you are saying no. That's a good feeling.


Stormie says that it was a continue struggle for her as her mother, the person she was forgiving, was continuing to abuse her. Every time that happened her feelings of anger and unforgiveness toward her mother would come flooding back. She would pray, "Lord, help me to forgive my mother." Then one day she was praying for the Lord to give her a forgiving heart and her prayer changed to "Lord, help me to have a heart like Yours towards my mother." She states that almost immediately she had a vision of her mother, she was beautiful, fun-loving, and a gifted women who bore no resemblance to the mother she knew. She was seeing her the way God had made her and not the way she had become. You see her mother was mentally ill causing her fits and abuse that Stormie had lived with. Stormie says that now she had compassion for her mother. Then she goes on to explain the tragedies that her mother had which led to her emotional and mental illness. She wasn't just compassionate but understanding as well. What a transformation.

Shouldn't we pray "Lord, let me have a heart like yours." I want that to be my prayer. When it is how can we still be angry, unforgiving and hateful? That is not the Lord's heart. But when we have a heart like His we can't help but have compassion, understanding, love and forgiveness.

So let that be our prayer today.


"Lord, let me have a heart like Yours." Amen