Monday Morning Reflections

My friend, Jill, over at Forever n Ever n Always, is hosting a Monday Morning Reflections based on the book of Hebrews and the book The Holiest of All by Andrew Murray. I pray you are blessed by what you find in the scriptures she shares with you today. I am also going to link up with Beth over at Miracle Monday because the truth is...when you partake with Christ and you forgive and your heart is not hardened....it is truly a miracle!



The scripture verse that has resonated with me this morning and has spoken to me several times over the years in my walk with the Lord was Hebrews 3:14-15 "For if we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

If I truly partake with Christ, and I have, then I am in a constant state of not allowing a hardened heart. I want to speak to you what that has meant to me in my life. Because we can all say that we don't do it and we try our best not to allow it, but when the rubber hits the road, at the end of the day, when you lay your head on your pillow, have you truly allowed the blood of Christ to not allow your heart to become hard?

The year was 1995 and I had just laid down my three year old son for a nap. It was New Years Day or just thereafter. We had just returned home from church. The phone rang and the caller id showed that there was a call coming in from a young girl that we went to church with. When I picked up the phone, she hung up. Although I thought it was strange, I kind of ignored it. But I had a little bit of a nagging feeling. One of those wife's intuition kind of things. And shortly thereafter, my husband made an excuse to leave the house. Suspicion confirmed.

We were very new in our walk with the Lord as I had a very difficult childhood and had walked away from Him as a teen and young adult. Church was new for me. But I had a keen sense of right and wrong and knew this was wrong. I confronted my husband and he confessed. My life, I thought, was over. My husband left me and went to California for ten days to be with his family and sort things out in his mind.

During that time, I had my Bible and I had a church family and my blood family. You would be surprised at everything everyone was telling me. My blood family was packing my husbands things and wanted him gone. Well, that's not really a surprise, is it? But my church pastors were telling me I had biblical grounds for a divorce. No real talks for reconciliation or anything like that. They gave me comfort that God would be with me, but that's really all.

However, God kept bringing me back to His Word and to places in the Bible that would talk about hating divorce and how he only granted it because of the hardness of the heart. Matthew 19

I wrestled with God. I didn't want a hard heart. But I didn't want to be married to this man anymore, either. And then God brought me a sweet sister by the name of Phyllis. We are still the closest of friends. She sat me down one day and said this to me. "Debra, I want you to close your eyes. I want you to imagine Jesus up on the cross. I want you to see the crown of thorns on His head. I want you to see His blood stained face and body. I want you to see Him laboring to breathe. I want you to see His eyes as He looks at you with LOVE and then pain as you tell Him...thanks, but no thanks, it's not enough"!

I startled at her words and said "I could never say that to Him"! She began to explain to me that we do that everytime we do not forgive someone and everytime we allow bittnerness and hardness into our hearts. We have to allow what Jesus did to keep our hearts tender and kind. We have to partake with Christ and allow His Divine nature to rule the day. We just have to be willing to yield to His nature and not our own.

I learned and gleaned much from that simple example. I will never look my Jesus in His eyes and say It's not enough. I will never allow my heart to become hard. Everything is forgiveable. My husband has made mistakes and we have worked through them with the love and teaching of Christ. We are better people for it.

There are those who would say, how can you write about that and say things about your husband that are unflattering and put so much of that out there? I hope it does not offend anyone. I have my husbands permission and the truth is, it is part of our testimony of what God can do. My husband is very open about how far he fell from Grace and how you can never be so far that Jesus can't find you or forgive you. He wants to shout it from the rooftops..."My Jesus can do this....." But it is also very true that he has had to allow forgiveness to permeate his heart, which can sometimes be harder for the person who has allowed the sin and not allow hardness to set in and give up too.

So, I would encourage you today. Partake with Christ. Hold onto Him as in the beginning of your confidence steadfast to the end knowing He will be faithful.

James 5:19 "Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins."