Recently someone broke into my shop by cutting off the lock. They stole several items which were pretty valuable. Some of the more costly items was a welder (owned by a friend) and my 25 gallon gas caddy (full) on wheels. I was pretty upset and thinking a few thoughts of revenge. Like, “may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their armpits”, ha ha.
No, but seriously, I was really feeling violated and understandably so. It was affecting my joy and peace. So I had a conversation with the Lord Jesus about it because I don’t like feeling anger or hatred towards anyone. I asked Him what I should do and He said, “forgive them”. I thought to myself, “They haven’t even repented yet, do I have to forgive them”? Then Holy Spirit interrupted my thoughts and said, “Neither had you when I forgave you”.
I’m like, umm… Oh yeah, that’s true and I’ve learned this lesson before. Holy Spirit gave a sweet smile that I could feel warming my heart as I let go of the feeling of violation, anger and hurt and gave it to Him as an offering. Then the Lord said, “When you forgive, you are making space for them to repent (change their mind)”. I thought, yes that’s true, I’ve learned this lesson before over bigger situations. Why would I forget that lesson?
I went down to the shop where my friend was, who’d also been violated. I told him what the Lord said. So we decided to pray about it. I asked God to release them of the wrong they’d done to us and gave our pledge of forgiveness to God on their behalf. We asked the Lord to help them repent and change their minds about the theft. We then prayed that Holy Spirit would convince them to return the stolen items. We called the Sheriff’s department and they said they’ve are to busy and we should go check the local pawn shops. But nothing was found.
A week or so went by and I received a phone call from my neighbor about a quarter of a mile away. They said that a friend of theirs was walking on their property about a hundred yards from our property line and found several items. I asked if there was a welder and gas caddy among the stuff. She exclaimed, Yes! These items weren’t left there the night they were stolen, they were too heavy to carry that far, even for 2 or 3 people. They had been brought back.
We had some suspicions about who took them and some thoughts on why they brought it back (sort of back). I won’t go into it here because all of that doesn’t matter, the point is, they brought it back. I don’t yet know the end of this story but I am believing there’s more.
Last night I went to a worship event at church. At first I could see everyone was tired and carrying the events of their week on their backs. After a few minutes of worship the things began to lift off and freedom came. You know, kinda like when you’ve been roller skating and you take the skates off and feel like you could break the record in a 100 meter dash. Or if you’ve worn a backpack while hiking and after taking it off you feel like a million bucks. It felt so free in the room, like we’d stepped into eternity in the presence of the Lord.
Afterwards I was pondering this, and the Lord posed a question to me. He asked me if any of the stuff that’d been stolen had any eternal value. I instantly responded with the correct answer, “of course not”. Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “So much of what weighs us down are things that have no eternal value. Why would you allow something temporary steal your peace, love and joy. Whether it’s things that got stolen or a lie someone spoke about us or an identity crisis suffered at the hands of an ignorant person”.
I realized that the eternal value of forgiveness was the most important thing that’d happened to me in the last several days and that had brought me life, abundant life. Now I’m on the alert!!! I’m looking for that which is eternal. The core values of my heavenly Papa are certainly eternal. Forgiveness is certainly eternal and its priceless!
Scripture to ponder: Ephesians 4:32 TPT But instead be kind and affectionate toward one another. Has God graciously forgiven you? Then graciously forgive one another in the depths of Christ’s love.
