When U Pray

“Forget about the wrong things people do to you. Don’t try to get even. Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:18 ERV
https://bible.com/bible/406/lev.19.18.ERV

I was reading a passage from a journal entry I wrote on February 16, 2014, and it said:

“Eighteen and a half years ago, I began to reach for God—and He reached down and found me sitting on a pew at 2130 S. Center Rd. I started loving and learning about God, and then I started learning about myself and loving myself.”

Recently, the Holy Spirit gave me a deeper revelation about this passage. I realized that to truly love others as you love yourself, you must first love yourself. God worked on me to release a past I had already survived. He pushed me and challenged me to examine my actions and recognize when I was responding out of trauma. He showed me my scars—both the ones I caused myself and the ones caused by others—and He required me to forgive.

No, they didn’t apologize.
No, they didn’t ask for forgiveness.
No, they didn’t acknowledge the pain they caused.

But I still had to look past all of it and forgive.

“But if you don’t forgive others, then your Father in heaven will not forgive the wrongs you do.”
Matthew 6:15 ERV
https://bible.com/bible/406/mat.6.15.ERV

So I encourage you to allow the love and grace of God to heal you. Allow the love of His Son to be made manifest in your life so you can be free from the pain of your past. Allow His love to speak louder than the voices of condemnation. Allow His Word to overtake your history so you can live free.

“So now anyone who is in Christ Jesus is not judged guilty. That is because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death.”
Romans 8:1–2 ERV
https://bible.com/bible/406/rom.8.1-2.ERV