Do Yourself a Favor...Forgive: Learn How to Take Control of Your Life Through Forgiveness - Hardcover

Meyer, Joyce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446547271 ISBN 13: 9780446547277

Verlag: FaithWords, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Building on her signature message of using the mind to master difficult emotions, Joyce Meyer focuses on the most destructive, insidious one of all: anger. It is responsible for broken relationships, sleepless nights, high blood pressure and ulcers. It destroys friendships, marriages and families, not to mention peace of mind. Anger is especially hard to handle for many Christians who have learned from childhood that "good Christians don't get angry." Meyer argues that properly handled, anger is an alert system that something is wrong and needs to be resolved.

In her latest book, she delves into the important process of forgiving, explaining its positive impact on the roots, the forms and the results of anger.

Why forgive? Joyce explains that forgiving is the only thing that can free one from the terrible turmoil that anger causes to spill over into every part of life.

Meyer understands that life will never be fair, but that is not a reason to let anger destroy our well-being and health. This is her guide to navigating that thorny territory and finding true peace.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Joyce Meyer is one of the world's leading practical Bible teachers. Her daily broadcast, Enjoying Everyday Life, airs on hundreds of television networks and radio stations worldwide.

Joyce has written nearly 100 inspirational books. Her bestsellers include Power Thoughts; The Confident Woman; Look Great, Feel Great; Starting Your Day Right; Ending Your Day Right; Approval Addiction; How to Hear from God; Beauty for Ashes; and Battlefield of the Mind.

Joyce travels extensively, holding conferences throughout the year, speaking to thousands around the world. Joyce resides in St. Louis, MO.

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Do Yourself a Favor...Forgive

Learn How to Take Control of Your Life Through ForgivenessBy Meyer, Joyce

FaithWords

Copyright © 2012 Meyer, Joyce
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780446547277

CHAPTER 1

It Isn’t Fair!

Susanna is a forty-eight-year-old woman who grew up on a remote farm in a tiny Texas town. Her parents were extremely poor, with little income and half a dozen children.

Susanna was the youngest, and her sunny disposition, pretty features, and unusual intelligence served her well from early on. She finished high school and went on to be one of the best salespeople where she worked in a small company that manufactured clothing. Eventually, she started her own business, manufacturing women’s apparel. She loved her business; it gave her a sense of accomplishment and value, and she gave herself to it wholeheartedly. She met and married the man of her dreams, and they had two children. As the years progressed, so did her business, and by the time she was in her early forties, she and her husband were running a multimillion-dollar company together.

Susanna and her husband enjoyed all that wealth could provide: a magnificent home, cars, boats, and a summer cottage. Their vacations took them around the world. Their two daughters attended the best schools and enjoyed the most prominent social circles. They grew up and enjoyed successful careers and families of their own. Life could not have been any better, or so they thought. Although the couple attended church occasionally out of a sense of duty, their relationship with God was not personal, nor did they genuinely consider God’s will when making decisions. Even the family relationships were more surface ones rather than deep, honest, and intimate.

One day, suddenly and without warning, Susanna learned that her husband was having an affair and that it wasn’t the first time. She was shocked and deeply hurt. Not only was he unfaithful, but she also learned he had plunged the company into debt and a tremendous amount of the corporate money was unaccounted for. He had been taking money from the business she started and using it to entertain his girlfriends and live a secret life.

The marriage dissolved quickly, and Susanna was left with a business that was deep in debt and on the verge of collapse. Then the economy tanked and retail sales plunged downward, which resulted in Susanna’s company going under. Her anger and bitterness toward her ex-husband, whom she blamed for everything, was increasing daily.

Susanna turned to her children for understanding and comfort, but they resented her for the years she had worked so hard and failed to spend much time with them. They also felt that part of their father’s infidelity was due to their mother loving her business more than anything else in the world. They were busy with their own lives and ignored their mother’s needs and problems just as they felt she had ignored theirs when they needed her. Susanna needed support, but there was none.

She turned to her sister, but believe it or not she seemed to revel in Susanna’s distress. She felt that her years of success and “easy living” had made her selfish and inconsiderate. The rift that ensued between them was massive, and they still don’t speak to this day after eight years.

Her children, while polite, don’t call often or invite her to visit. Susanna has become increasingly bitter and blames everyone else for her unhappiness. Not once has she considered that some of the problems could have been her fault, and not once has she even considered forgiving and asking for forgiveness.

She is angry with her ex-husband. She is angry with herself for not having seen that her marriage and business were falling apart right before her eyes. She is angry that her children haven’t done more for her, and she is angry at God because her life has turned out to be so disappointing.

Who Wouldn’t Be Angry?

Most people in this situation would be angry, but they wouldn’t have to be if they understood the love of God and knew that He has already provided a way out of this kind of misery. The number of lives that are ruined through anger and unforgiveness is astonishing. Some of them don’t know any better, but many of them are Christians who do know better but are unwilling to make the right choice. They live according to their feelings, rather than moving beyond them to do the better thing. They lock themselves in a prison of negative emotions and limp along in life rather than living it fully and vibrantly.

Yes, most people would be angry, but there is a better way: they could do themselves a favor and forgive. They could shake off their disappointment and get reappointed in God. They could look to the future instead of the past. They could learn from their mistakes and endeavor to not make them again.

Although most of us don’t find ourselves in such dire circumstances as Susanna was in, there is certainly no end of things to be angry about… the neighbor’s dog, the government, taxes, not getting the pay increase that was expected, traffic, a husband who leaves his socks and underwear on the bathroom floor, or the kids showing no appreciation for all you do for them. Then there are the people who say unkind things to us and never apologize, parents who never showed affection, siblings who were favored, false accusations, and on and on the list goes in a never-ending cascade of opportunities to either be angry or forgive and move on.

Our natural reaction is upset, offense, bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness.

But who are we hurting by nursing these negative emotions? The person who committed the offense? Sometimes it does hurt people if we shut them out of our lives through anger, but quite often they don’t even know or care that we are angry! We walk around preoccupied with our upset, replaying the offense over and over again in our minds. How much time have you spent imagining what you want to tell the person who made you angry, all the while upsetting yourself more? When we allow ourselves to do this, we actually hurt ourselves much more than the offender.

Medical studies have shown that anger can cause everything from ulcers to a bad attitude. At the very least it is a waste of precious time. Every hour that we stay angry is an hour we have used and will never get back. In Susanna’s and her family’s case, they wasted years. Think of the times they missed in fellowship because of all the anger among them. Life is unpredictable; we don’t know how much time we have left with our loved ones. What a shame it is to deprive ourselves of good memories and relationships because of anger. I also wasted a lot of years being angry and bitter because of injustices done to me early in life. My attitude affected me in many negative ways, and it overflowed onto my family. Angry people always take their anger out on someone because what is in us does come out of us. We may think we have our anger hidden from everyone, but it finds a way to express itself eventually.

The things that happen to us are often not fair, but God will recompense us if we trust and obey Him. Wanting revenge is a normal desire, but it is not one we can indulge in. We want to be paid back for damage done, and God promises to do just that.

Hebrews 10:30

For we know Him Who said, Vengeance is Mine [retribution and the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: FaithWords
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0446547271
• ISBN 13: 9780446547277
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchbär; info@buchbaer.de; ; Weberstr. 67; Osnabrück; 49084; Deutschland