“You Can Go Farther Than You Think”

I am writing today with sadness. Do you ever read a book and grieve when you come to the ending? Perhaps you may be like me and re-read the ending several times! I have to tell you that spending thirty days in this book has helped me find purpose, healing, and forgiveness from a painful past with many experiences.

Right now I am struggling with a choice I made in 2010.  I have made amends yet this person does not want anything to do with me and is very hateful and spiteful. What does one do in this situation? I have had to relive what I did and I have admitted I was wrong. I have confessed to my Lord where I failed. Yet for the other person it is not enough. In July, the person accepted my apology only to not accept it now. So with a heavy heart I will continue to pray for this person but I have to let go and not return the person’s hate. You see sometimes reconciliation does not always occur. Do you know why? reconciliation does not alway occur because it takes two to reconcile. I am have asked the person and God for forgiveness. In my heart, I am accepting god’s forgiveness because if I don’t I would be calling God a liar as He says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  I am choosing to forgive this person and to not be bitter.

Tracie shares about the movie “Facing The Giants” how this young man by wearing a blind fold was able to find the strength to go farther than he would have gone had he not had the blindfold over his eyes? Have you watched a movie that has had a profound effect on you? There are so many movies such as “Blind Side”  is a true story, this movie shows compassion for a homeless young man and what love and encouragement can do for a person. “When a Man Loves A Woman” is about alcoholism and how this family overcomes the hardships related to a person whose choice is self destruction over healthy habits. What movie have you seen that has changed your life for the better?

II Corithians 5:7, “For we live by believing and not by seeing” 

In this last chapter, here are some of my favorite statements that Tracie writes: 

[Tweet “God wants us to trust and depend on Him as our life coach and allow Him to tell us when to go and when to stop. Tracie Miles #YLSC”]

“Once we experience God’s redemption and healing, He calls us to see them and get to work on making a difference.”

“God is already preparing divine appointments.”

[Tweet “He has never left your side, even when you were in the darkest pit and the deepest pain. Tracie Miles. #YLSC”]

[Tweet “God wants us to allow Him, our heavenly coach to turn experiences of our lives into a colorful masterpiece. Tracie Miles #YLSC”]

“Jesus is the author of our faith and our lives. We each have been divinely designed for the great purpose of bringing him glory and enjoying the reward of abundant joy and purposeful lives.”

[Tweet “God does not want us to waste our pain, but let Him turn the darkness into light, hopelessness into hope, and ugliness into beauty with each step we take toward our divinely designed destinies. Tracie Miles, #YLSC”]

Beloved as Tracie says, “God has been writing your story since the day you were born.”  She shared a saying from Mas Lucado, “Don’t see your struggle as an interruption to life but as preparation for life, God will use this mess for something good.”  She shares, “Only God can turn a mess into a message, a test into a testimony, a trial into a triumph, and a victim into a victory.”

The last woman’s story in the book is about a woman who loses her son, her husband and her home to Hurricane Katrina. She faced a crisis of faith and she said to God, “Lord this is it. Either I trust you all the way, or I give up believing in you altogether, Lord I choose to believe in you. I will stand on your promises because I cannot stand on my own.”  What trial are you going through?

Tracie will be offering YLSC  study starting March 16, 2015. Because we went through this book quickly, I hope you will sign up for her study, it is free. I still will buy this book for you if you are unable to afford one because I believe in the message of hope in this book.  I would need your name and address. My email is blessingsrockwell@gmail.com. I will be participating in her study. She also has a Faith Zone that you can receive by going to her web site at http://traciemiles.com .  

Beloved, even though we may suffer the consequences of our choices just as I am from a choice in 2010, however,  it does not change 

[Tweet “”GOD LOVES US ALL THE TIME. GOD IS FAITHFUL.””]

My hope is that you will let go of your past mistakes and embrace the beautiful future God has for you.

Father God, thank you for Your faithfulness, thank You that Your word says in Roman 8, “If God is for us who can be against us.” And in Ephesians 3:20 that You will work to carry out more in our lives than we might ask or think. In Psalm 103, you forgive us as far as east is from west. In Psalm 139:14, You say we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God, You are the author of our story, nothing we have done can make You stop loving us or separate us from You according to the end of Romans 8. You do not want us to live in the shadow of our past but in the light of the future You have for each of us. In Jesus name, Amen

 Thank you for coming along with me on my first book study.  Blessings.