Morning Discipline – Laying Down Our Resentment Toward God

Good morning!

It is a new week and a new day and I’m so glad you could join me as we continue our journey toward renewing our minds and improving our self-discipline. If you’re just joining me, you can read my article, “Morning and Evening: A New Self Discipline Journey” to learn more about why I am doing this, and how this may benefit you as well.

This week we are going to focus each day on forgiveness. Each day this week I will provide affirmations, scriptures, and daily challenges regarding this topic. Next week will be a new one!

With that said, let’s start our morning together!

BREATHING EXERCISE

Before we begin let us take some deep breaths to calm our mind and prepare us for this mornings discipline.

MUSIC FOR A NEW DAY

I personally like to have some soft music in the background, so if that’s something you like as well below you will find a song you can play for the duration of our time together.

PRAYER For Letting Go of Resentment

Now that we’re calm, let us transition to a time of prayer. Over the next few minutes you can pray on your own or feel free to use the following prayer:

Come Close, Lord, and hear my prayer as I come with great hesitation seeking reconciliation with you, my God.

I find that my lips will hardly form these words, and yet, if I am honest, I know that at times there has been hidden in my heart a resentment toward you, my God. The reason, Lord, is that from the start you have shaped my world, formed my body, gifted my mind, and placed me within my family. I have held you responsible when these seemed unjust and, though afraid, have often wanted to raise my fist to you. This, Lord God, is one of those times.

Be patient with me, Divine Master, because from the spot where I stand, I can see only a small part of this universe. My vision is confined to a limited today, to a few yesterdays. I cannot grasp the full sweep of your divine plan, of which my life is a tiny but important part.

I know in my heart of hearts that you love me without limit and that you desire only that which is good and wholesome for me. With that knowledge, I can embrace, without understanding it all, what you have decreed for me from all time. I embrace my body, my family, my place in history, and even this present situation for which I can see no simple resolution.

Lord God, please accept my pardon and embrace me with your divine affection. Smile upon my simple efforts to serve and praise you even as I sometimes stumble through my life.

Thank, my Lord and my Friend, for your patience and your gracious acceptance of my forgiveness. May we live together forever.

Amen

A Prayer to Forgive God | Finding Solace

AFFIRMATIONS for Letting Go of Resentment

Here are a few affirmations for this morning that you can put in your pocket and carry with you throughout your day.

As you read through them, repeat each one out loud at least three times before moving to the next. Take your time. Close your eyes and say them to yourself as well. Let these words sink into your heart and mind this morning:

1. I believe and accept that God has allowed things to occur for reasons beyond my understanding.
2. I reject and let go of my anger toward God.
3. What I am going through is temporary and I will not allow it to disturb my peace.
4. I refuse to let disappointment take control of my life.

SCRIPTURES For Letting Go of Resentment

As Christians, our affirmations should be rooted in the strength and power of God who empowers us and strengthens us to face every trial and every day (both good and bad).

Here are some scriptures that further support the affirmations we just spoke to ourselves. Again, repeat each one three times out loud before moving to the next one. Take your time. Maybe try to commit these to memory as well:

1. 1 Peter 5:6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
2. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
3. Psalm 86:15, “But you, Lord, are compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
4. Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

TODAYS CHALLENGE

Our challenge today is this: let go of your resentment toward God.

Resentment = a feeling of indignant displeasure or persistent ill will at something regarded as a wrong, insult, or injury.

How many times in your life, or in the world around you, has something gone wrong and you say to yourself, “God, if you are such a good God, why do you let these bad things happen to me?”?

Or, something bad happens to you or a loved one and you hold a grudge toward God for either a) assuming He did this or b) for not using his power to stop it?

In many ways, when we do this we are holding God personally responsible for the bad things going on in our lives and building up walls of resentment around our hearts and minds toward Him. In fact, in many ways, we are treating him as if he ha sinned against us. This, in turn, creates a distance between us and God making our relationship with him strained at best and fractured at worst. We may even feel abandoned by God.

There is something interesting to note about the darkest moment of Jesus’ life as he hung on the cross: he too felt abandoned by God (Matthew 27:46). The difference between Jesus and us is that Jesus had a proper understanding of God’s will and plan and knew that while he felt abandoned (his human emotion), He wasn’t, and he knew that God had a plan he was working out in this moment.

In an article I found written by Steve Johnson the Executive Director at Insight for Living Canada (a ministry of Pastor Chuck Swindoll) titled “Forgiving God“, he acknowledges that in many ways it’s as if letting go of our resentment toward God is like an act of “forgiving” him. This is not forgiveness in the truest sense because God has committed no sin toward us or anyone for that matter, but rather it has a similar process like we would go through in forgiving others.

I realize that sounds almost like heresy to say, but I’m not suggesting that we actually forgive God (nor is Steve Johnson), but rather it is a feeble attempt at trying to capture the concept of letting go of our resentment toward God.

So, how do we let go of this resentment toward God? (or as Steve Johnson puts it, “forgive” God)

Johnson provides a couple steps that might be helpful:

1. Make peace with God by evaluating your beliefs and expectations of Him – in other words, examine our beliefs and expectations of God and compare them to Scripture. Are we holding a wrong view of God that doesn’t line up with the Bible? If so, this may be the source of our resentment.
2. View the situation through the Gospel – in other words, just because God allows a situation to occur doesn’t mean he caused it or approves of it. The situation may just be what is needed to carry out a part of God’s greater plan for you and for the world.

I realize this may also require letting go of the need to have an answer for everything. This is hard for people who have a deep desire to “know it all”, but the reality is the entire concept of “Faith” is being OK with not having all the answers and still being able to follow God despite the unknowns and trusting God in the midst of our unknowing.

Quote of the Day

Today’s quote comes from Mandy Hale, author of “The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass”, and she says:

The more you go with the flow of life and surrender the outcome to God, and the less you seek constant clarity, the more you will find that fabulous things start to show up in your life.

Mandy Hale

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