September 19, 2011

WHY LIFE DOES NOT GO WELL
by Geri McGhee

"Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you." Deuteronomy 5:16

Every problem in life can be traced back to the breaking of this one commandment. It is a Scriptural truth that life will go well for us in every area we could honor our mother and father and life will not go well for us in any area we did not or could not honor our mother or father.

To honor means to forgive them. It does not mean that we have to agree with them, like them, model our life after them or, if we are grown, fellowship with them if they are evil. But, to honor means to forgive them for their poor stewardship of us by not training us up in the way we should go according to the Word of God. In the areas that we have let the sun go down on our anger, grief, sadness, worry, fear, frustration, hurt, pain, etc. without forgiving them, we have dishonored them.

This dishonoring of our parents sets up a life-long reaping process for us to experience the same problems in our present circumstances for which have judged our parents.

PRO 12:14 "The deeds of a man's hands will return to him."

MAT 7:1-2 "Do not judge lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged and by your standard of measure it will be measured to you."

ROM 2:1 "Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things."

ECC 7:9 "Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools.

EPH 4:26-27 "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity."

This does not mean to deny our anger exists but to acknowledge it and to not let it turn into sin by letting the sun go down on it. We may have a right to be angry but God instructs us to forgive so we can be forgiven. God will only forgive us to the degree we forgive others.

MAR 11:26 "But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."

If we hold onto our anger, according to Matthew 5:21-26, we go into a spiritual prison (spiritual bondage) and we will stay in it until we forgive. MAT 18:32-35 says unforgiveness causes us to get turned over to the torturers. The torturers are demons that inflict pain. The word "torturers" also means the pain of disease. Unforgiveness will hold the pain in whatever area of the body we are hurt and if held in our heart, eventually, it will turn into sickness and disease.

So I ask you where is your life not going well? The problems you are now having in the present are mirroring the problems of the past and revealing unresolved mother and daddy issues.

The good news is that when we forgive, God cancels the reaping in the specific area we forgive, we come out of the spiritual prisons we have been held in and we experience God's freedom and His peace.

ECC 11:10 "So, remove vexation (grief and anger) from your heart and put away pain from your body."

Hallelujah!