Reconcile

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” ‭‭
2nd Corinthians 5:17-19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

RECONCILIATION.

There is a reason I highlighted this word and then repeated it. It is a tough word for me and I bet it is for you too. It is a word, that when we have held onto anger for a long time, we just don't want to hear. 

I know all too well the sting of being done wrong by someone. And when you have been done wrong, you feel the natural human emotion of anger and that isn't necessarily wrong. Even solid Christians get angry, yes, even your pastor, and there is nothing at all wrong with that. The "wrong" comes when you give yourself permission to keep that anger in a head lock and allow it to put roots down inside your heart. I have learned all too well that there is a HUGE difference between getting angry about something and being an angry person. 

My whole adult life I have struggled with my temper. As a younger man, I allowed my emotions to completely rule over the way I would react to any given situation and if I felt like I was being slighted in any way you had better look out. I would fight at the drop of a hat, either physically or verbally. This behavior cost me friendships and great embarrassment over the years, as well as grieving the Holy Spirit. It wasn't until I got serious about my relationship with the Lord that I saw breakthrough in this area of my life, although at times I still struggle with it, I have learned that people are simply people and that they were going to let me down and wrong me sometimes. It is a fact of reality that we all have accept this side of heaven. Imperfect people act imperfectly. 

And this is why reconciliation is so very important and so crucial to your spiritual growth. I learned that when I refused to reconcile my anger towards someone or some situation, all the while choosing to sit and soak in the vinegar that is anger and bitterness, it was only hurting me and those closest to me. I was the one that was starving. My growth in Christ was being stunted due to my unchecked anger and poor behavior. I was spiritually anorexic due to this cycle of behavior. 

But this isn't the end. While I may have lived a good bit of life in anger and bitterness, I have learned that I am a new person in Christ. I don't have to allow the enemy to whisper the lies I believed for some long, lies telling me that I would never overcome the anger in my heart and that I was destined to be this way forever. When Christ called me, He called me to be reconciled to Him and His desire for me is to carry the message of reconciliation with me every single day, showing those around me, those closest to me, that God can change a man from the inside out. 

Is it easy to reconcile? No way! If it was easy it wouldn't be worth it. Nothing worth having is ever attained easily. 

You might ask me, "Why should I reconcile? You don't know what they did to me?" I understand that feeling all to well and I would tell you that when you start to forgive others it becomes much easier to overcome the lies of the enemy and forgive yourself for your own failings. It is only when we forgive as Christ first forgave us that we can finally find the peace and rest we all seek for our lives. 

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways." 1st Corinthians 13:11 ESV