Your Grudge Is Costing You More

Somebody hurt you and you have every right to be upset. That part is real and pretending otherwise helps nobody. The problem is what happens if you keep it.

Offence is quiet. It never announces itself, it just slowly takes your peace and your joy and your ability to hear from God. James 3:16 says, "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." Confusion is the tell. When you cannot think straight about one particular person, something has taken root.

James 3:17 shows the other option: "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." That kind of wisdom is not a personality type some people were born with. It comes from above, which means it is given to you.

And you already have access to it, because you already have Him. You were forgiven in full before you ever forgave anybody. Whatever mercy you need to hand out today, you received a much bigger version of it first.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Take the actual hurt to Him, not a tidied up version of it. Forgiveness is a decision long before it becomes a feeling, and the Holy Spirit is the One who brings the feeling along later.

Releasing someone does not mean what they did was fine. It means you are done paying rent on it. Jesus already paid for that whole situation, so hand it over and take your peace back.