How Difficult for You Are Reconciliations?

Looking back over the past year brings up memories of heartbreak and loss for so many who have been the victims of forces beyond their control. So permit God’s gift of grief and sadness to be instrumental in healing you. For most, however, it has been a year marked by the usual ups and downs of life.

Disappointments are difficult to avoid because it’s impossible to constantly please everyone or be pleased by them. By seeking and offering forgiveness we are obeying what Jesus instructed us to do. Extending forgiveness to others frees you to go forward with a clear conscience to make the best of each new day.

So be receptive to overtures of apologies from others, for these opportunities may pass and never return. Reconciliations please the Lord Jesus Christ. He stands ready to forgive and heal you along with restoring your soul, which give you peace from guilt and shame. This is God’s way, for which I am thankful.                            

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Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

~1 Corinthians 13:11 New International Version

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The Prerogative to Choose

God gives each of us the prerogative for choosing how we want to live – to choose either righteousness or unacceptable behavior. We then experience the consequences of our choices. That happened to Samson when he revealed to Delilah the secret of his strength. He chose to be seduced by Delilah and consequently trusted her with his secret.

He became careless by believing he was indestructible because he’d escaped entrapment so many times. While Samson slept, Delilah’s attendant shaved his head. With the enemy at the door, he awoke to discover the terrible consequences of satisfying his lustful passion instead of honoring God’s calling for his life. 

Do you long for life to be different in this coming New Year? Philippians 3:14 encourages you to "press on toward to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus". Even in the worst failures, God offers healing and reconciliation to those who turn back to Him. Is that a choice you need to make for the New Year?

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Keep me far from every wrong; help me, undeserving as I am, to obey your laws, for I have chosen to do right. I cling to your commands and follow them as closely as I can. Lord, don’t let me make a mess of things… Stand ready to help me because I have chosen to follow your will.

~Psalm 119:28-31 & 173 The Living Bible

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Subscribe to the Attitudes Answers podcast on your favorite podcast platform to hear this and other 2-minute features 3 days every week.