Hello and Welcome!
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, 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 rebuilding broken relationships. 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 Forgiving an Offense
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:
Father,
Please forgive me when I allow anger and bitterness to fill my heart because I refuse to forgive someone who has hurt me. Teach me how to lay down my rights and choose to forgive in the same way You have forgiven me.
Amen
16 Relieving Prayers for Forgiveness to Make Peace with Yourself and Others | Womans Day
AFFIRMATIONS for Forgiving an Offense
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:
- I let go of the past so I can freely step into my future.
- Resentment inhibits my growth.
- I am ready to make peace with those who have done me wrong.
- Past hurts do not dictate my future feelings.
SCRIPTURES For Forgiving an Offense
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:
- Matthew 6:14, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
- Colossians 3:13, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
- Luke 6:37, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
- Proverbs 17:9, “Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.”
TODAYS CHALLENGE
Our challenge today is this: let go of an offense you have been carrying.
Know what’s hard? Not dwelling on an offense you have received. You sit and pour over it, replaying the events over and over in your head. You justify your anger and unforgiveness to yourself and to others who will hear your story. For many they end up spending years in bondage to anger and unforgiveness, finding it impossible to move forward in life. In fact, every interaction they have somehow triggers the offense over and over again.
It’s also hard NOT to take on an offense that someone we love has received. We love these people, and when someone does them wrong we pick up their offense and carry it as though it is our own. It doesn’t matter if we personally were not wronged. Wronging our loved one, in our minds, is the same as wronging us.
But the reality is, we will face offenses daily. Those we love will face offenses daily. And we have the opportunity to choose to forgive and move on, or dwell on it and become bitter.
So today’s challenge is just that…think of an offense you’ve been carrying (NOTE: if you’ve been carrying it I imagine it won’t be hard to think of which one it is) and then let go of it. Put it down. Move on. Forgive the person. It’s time. In fact, it’s beyond time. Just put the offense down and walk away.
I realize that may be easier said than done, but it’s necessary for your healing and the opportunity to rebuild the broken relationship you’ve been missing.
Quote of the Day
Today’s quote comes from the late Civil Rights activist and pastor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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