Have Mercy.... That used to be You....

"Girl come on. Let's go to the club. Nah girl, not me. It's just not me anymore." "Girl I can't stand my boss, he make me so sick. Girl you need to be grateful for the job that you got. You know God gave it to you. Plus, it could be worse, you could have NO job." "Girl I'm so sick of praying for my friend. She so stuck in herself, she ain't never going to get this thing right. Girl I'm pretty sure someone was saying the same thing about you before you got delivered but they didn't stop praying for you did they?"

These things all used to be me. And at some times I forget and they still are. I'm very aware that I am still a work in progress. I won't ever be perfect because there's only one who ever was and ever will be perfect. I just had a friend the other day tell me that she just sat and listened to a lady that was just so negative about things going on. She told me that after "correcting" her 3 times she just got tired of trying to explain the goodness of the situation to her and just walked away. I had to remind her that some people just have a negative spirit and all you can do is pray them out of it or through it. I felt that I needed to remind her that it wasn't too long ago that she was that very same negative person and there were a few people that did not stop praying for her because that's all we could do.

But I didn't want her to feel condemned about how she reacted to that woman. So I had to tell her a story of something that I happen to go through from time to time. Because, I too, am not perfect. But one day I was outside with my husband and one of my daughters and I noticed a neighbor across the street come out of her house and cuss her teenage son up and down as he walked away. She was cursing him out so bad that I felt like she was cursing ME out and I needed to go hide. I felt like I was in trouble and all I could do was sit and listen to it because I felt like I deserved it and that I must have done something wrong.

After a few more moments I just wanted to cry because I felt so bad for that teenage boy. No matter what he did, it just didn't seem possible for me to understand how someone can get cussed out in that manner and so harshly and so deeply and more importantly by their own mother. A few moments later I was walking around in our driveway and my husband noticed me with tears welled up in my eyes and he asked me what was wrong. The Holy Spirit brought back to my remembrance that I used to cuss my own son and my own daughter out also. I looked at him and just asked "did I sound like that when I was cussing out the kids before I finally got myself together?" He looked at me and gave me a very firm "Yes.". It took all of the strength that I had in me to keep myself from screaming at the top of my lungs "FORGIVE ME GOD!!!!!!! FORGIVE ME KIDS!!!!!!". It was a shock for me to hear it all, and know that it used to be me. I just couldn't fathom that I truly sounded THAT bad. I went inside the house and I just cried and repented and prayed and cried and repented and prayed and cried and repented and prayed, until I felt a calm come over me. That's when I knew that God heard me and that he accepted my repentance. I need my children to understand that that type of behavior and language is not acceptable in God's kingdom. I need them to do better than I did when they grow up.

When I told my friend about this experience that I had, she completely understood everything and was not offended by my need to remind her of who she used to be and how there were people that prayed her out. So that she could get to a place where she could truly get before God and have that single encounter that would change her life.

Sometimes after salvation the behavior that you cannot stand the most is the same one that before your salvation, was the strongest in you. Just remember when you are about to look down, or ignore, or use "justifiable reasons" to not pray for someone cause of something you don't like, You weren't born saved either. You had a process that you had to go through too. And sometimes, just sometimes, that thing you can't stand about that other person, was the same thing you struggled with for so long.

Don't ever think, after you have been delivered, that you are a step above anyone else. Your deliverance now means, that God has proven Himself to you by delivering you, and now you need to do your Reasonable Service and learn how to pray, so you can pray someone else into an encounter so God can deliver them as well.

Always Have Mercy..... That used to be you...........