Negativity

Negativity is something everyone endures throughout their life. Whether someone tells you that you aren’t skilled enough for that sports team, or you tell yourself that you aren’t smart enough to take that class. I’ve dealt with negativity before just like everyone else. It’s hard. It really is. Negativity leaves nothing but bitterness, hatred, and brokenness. If you hold in your feelings towards an issue, walls will start to build up around your relationships, your church, and your situation. When you come face to face to negativity, you have to remember three things: prayer, forgiveness, and to move on.

Prayer

It seems like we hear that a lot, huh? “Prayer changes everything”. It seems like we only believe that when some huge miracle happens like blind people gaining sight. Sometimes we think God won’t listen to the small prayers because they’re meaningless compared to some. When we finally get the mindset that God listens and will answer every prayer, we’ll start to see things that we’ve been praying for happen. Having faith that God will hear small, “meaningless” prayers is just as important as having faith that God will answer “impossible” prayers.

It’s hard to pray for those who hurt you, but there’s such a freedom that comes with it. Pray that the person gets restoration. Chances are that they are going through a time of loneliness or hurt. It may seem like they have a heart of stone, but they may be going through such a trying time in their life that all they can do is put others down to tell themselves that they have it all together. Swallow your pride and just pray.

Forgiveness

Of course forgiveness is up here, why wouldn’t it be? It’s vital for Christian lives to forgive others and ask for forgiveness. I’ve heard all my life “God forgave you, so we should forgive others.” Matthew 6:14 says, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.” We can’t hold grudges toward people. The longer you hold in a grudge, the more hate you have in your heart. Hate destroys people. It’s hard to let go of pride. Even if the other person isn’t even sorry, just forgive them. Even if they don’t care, it’ll give you relief and strengthen your relationship with God which is more important than any other relationship.

“Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. Confront people directly so you will not be held guilty for their sin.” – Leviticus 19:17

Move on

Personally this is the hardest thing to do. Letting go of things is tough. You can say you forgive someone all day long, but until you stop bringing it up out of the past… nothing has or will change. When you do move on, your eyes will open up to see maybe the person has changed or you saw things the wrong way. Isaiah 43:18 says, “Forget what happened long ago! Don’t think about the past.” Get up and move on sis!! God has amazing things planned for you ahead but you need to stop looking back first.

If we’ve heard these things all our lives, then why don’t we apply them? Have we become numb to listening? Or do we just not think any of it applies to us anymore?