You Have To Release To Be Set Free

"You will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:12-13 

Over the last week, I have really felt the Power of His Holy Spirit work in my heart and in my life. I knew there was something strong brewing in my heart that wasn't allowing me to feel the peace I craved so much and no matter how much I prayed for this to be revealed to me, I felt His silence. I was growing more and more impatient but I kept on praying. I knew that if I kept praying and seeking, He would honor my prayers. 

As I diligently prayed for a God encounter, I continued to engulf myself in His word and in worship music. Even though I was feeling His absence, I was going to continue to seek Him, I wouldn't give up.

"I trust in Your unfailing love. I will rejoice because You have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because He has been so good to me." Psalm 13:5-6 

Finally, this past weekend, God graced me so boldly with His peace and restoration!  I felt His presence stronger than I ever have in my life and I knew He was revealing to me all that I had been praying for. He was bringing to light all of the things that were causing my heart to not feel peace. I realized that the hindrance to my peaceful soul was unforgiveness.

I won't sit here and go through all that I have been through in life because we all have our story. We all have a testimony and we all have our journey that got us to where we are. However, I will tell you that a lot of my past and a lot of family issues had been causing me to allow unforgiving feelings to take reign in my heart. This unforgiving attitude I had deep down drove a fear and a darkness that wouldn't leave my side. It was always there taunting me and making me feel so weighed down in life. For months I didn't know what had such a strong hold of me but there it was, all laid out piece by piece, each moment in my life that I had not let go of; each devastating moment of pain . I held on to it with an unforgiving heart that refused to be set free. I made up my mind right then and there that I was done. I had had it! I wanted it no more!  I wanted to finally hand it over to Him and the moment that I finally handed it all over.....He spoke.  His love pierced my heart and I realized He had been waiting on me to release it all to Him.

For the first time in a long time, I feel totally free. I feel God's presence so strongly and I know that I have just experienced the God encounter that I have been praying for. He has finally pieced together for me all the brokenness that was causing me so much pain. He is putting me together and I am finally allowing Him to do this for me.  Over the past few years; I have had broken friendships and broken relationships that have broken my spirit but I have finally released all that brokenness to Him.  Restoration has been key over the past few months and I have seen God work amazing things in friendships I thought were broken forever.  I have experienced recently what happens when we truly hand relationships over to Him.  He is a God of love and grace and He wants to share that with us so much!

God is SO amazing with how He works.  I have been in complete awe of Him and how He always shows up at the perfect timing. I realize now that when we feel His absence, He isn't really absent. He's still there, setting up the scene for his divine encounter with us. He is preparing our hearts to accept what He needs us to accept.....and sometimes, that takes time and silence.  

Thank you Jesus so much for all that you do for us.  We go day by day sometimes ignoring the simple fact that you are FOR us; no matter what.  We can make mistake after mistake but YOU know our hearts and YOU know what is broken and how to repair it.  Sometimes we rely on family or friends or our jobs to fix what's broken but that's just unrealistic.  Those things can patch it up momentarily but only YOU, Jesus, can be our ultimate healer!  

If you are feeling uneasiness in your life, I encourage you to seek Him and not just seek Him by going to Church on Sunday but by really really seeking Him.  Seek all of His goodness and ask Him to come into your life and cleanse your whole soul.  Ask Him to show you the ways in which He wants you to live!   Jesus loves us and does forgive us but there is also a responsibility we must take up when we make the choice to be Christ followers and it is so important that we take heed and remember that He took us seriously when He died on the cross for us; therefore, we should take Him and our walk seriously!  Release it all to Him and allow Him to come in and fill your whole spirit with Him!