Sunday, May 13, 2018

Christian Churches Often Face Challenges

By Dwight Stevenson


I am the type of person that enjoys learning more about my spirituality. Life can often get the best of us. My clients often tell me that they wished that they could be more spiritual. It's not easy to develop a relationship with God. It requires a whole lot of discipline and time. I am fortunate enough to have spent many long hours with God growing up. I used to sit in my bedroom praying each day after school and whenever I got a change to spend time with Jesus Christ.

As I sat and spoke with him, he told me that he always had bad thoughts of not wanting to live anymore. He told me that life had become a painful mess for him. It was full of sadness and pain daily. He was angry at the hand that life had dealt him. He wept and said to me, "What makes you happy?" I was blunt with him and said, "God makes me happy. When I pray, I feel at peace. God has taught me to let the past go because I cannot do anything to change it." Yes, he said. That is so true. He asked me, "How can I get to a place in my life where I no longer have to live in my pain. I want to forget my memories of all the people that have hurt me from a long time ago."

The famous preachers are known by millions of people. If they were to live in a basic home without security, I wonder if they could walk out of their house every day without being bombarded. Pastors like Benny Hinn have lots of children. He resides in a mansion with his wife and children and has for many years. To the outside world, it may look as though he is just greedy and is hoarding all for the money for himself. He has his own jet and fancy cars. Is he living in sin? I don't believe so. I say this because he had to work hard to be at the level he is at today. He built his ministry from the ground up. Nobody handed him Benny Hinn Ministries.

I don't really know if he had to do this because of money or it was just his choice. The Bible says that He ate locusts and wild honey. It's hard to imagine living on a diet like this, but it is necessary for survival. Only God knows what we truly need in life. It's never easy to learn about your spiritual gift. It often requires a lot of trial and effort to get to a place where we can feel comfortable with our prayer life and ministry calling.

A few weeks past and I saw him once again. I said, "Did you confess your sins to others that you have hurt?" He said, "yes". He was able to contact most of the people that he had hurt, and he said that he was sorry. The people really appreciated it and he realized that he had to become a new man. I said, "Now you won't have the urge to drink as much or to have emotional pain." I said, "We only have emotional pain and the feelings of guilt when we owe someone an apology for what we have done to them. Sometimes it takes more than I am sorry. Sometimes we have to say it repeatedly to let them really know how bad we feel about it. Some people must give something material as well as an apology for what they have done. John agreed with me and said, "I feel so much better. How can I thank you?" I said to him, "You don't have to thank me. Just do right from now on. Don't be mean and think of other people's feelings before your own." It's interesting how much time we put into painful memories. All that we really must do is say to someone that we are sorry. We are sorry for offending and hurting them. We are sorry for saying mean things to them or doing something that is evil. When we have guilt, it eats at us. Admitting that we did something wrong is hurtful. We often have shame when we have done wrong. However, when we confess our sins to one another and then to God, we release something that is profound. I believe that we can all free our minds of guilt and pain when we release our hurt and pain to the Lord. Jesus is always waiting there to forgive us. Praise God that He gives us the opportunity to grow.




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