The following is a transcript of a facebook live in our Every Day Incredible Ladies facebook group.

Good evening, ladies!

If you haven’t already signed up for the mailing list I would like to see you do that. You can get a free prayer guide for dealing with anxiety through prayer. Hi, Crystal, I see you there; good evening!

So like I said, if you haven’t already joined the mailing list, do that so you get the free prayer guide. If there’s anything that you would like to see specifically offered in the mailing list, in those newsletters be sure to let me know.

Hi Julie, good evening to you too.

Okay, so I usually start with a story but I just want to start tonight with a passage. This comes from Colossians, chapter 3 verse 12 and it says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

This can be kind of a tough thing sometimes because we’ve all been hurt. We’ve all had situations that have happened in life that have been very, very hurtful. If you agree with that, click like. If you’ve been hurt by something in the past just to kind of acknowledge that somebody has hurt you or a situation has been very hurtful to you, when those things come up, I know it can be so hard to not start giving in to that bitterness and that resentment about whatever’s happened and whoever has hurt you. Because that’s rough! It’s hard to get past that sometimes because our human nature wants to take that thought and just dwell on it, but as we read so many places throughout scripture, we read about how when we do that, when we go down that pathway, it’s a dangerous path because it’s a slippery slope.

If you’ve ever noticed, somebody mentioned in Sunday School class, have you ever noticed how it is when you start saying one negative thing, how easily that catches on and it is really easy to keep going in that direction. When something negative happens and if you start dwelling on that thought, if you’re tempted by it, that’s one thing. If you start dwelling on that thought, then it’s easy to get kind of sucked into that hole and it just gets worse and worse, and that’s one of the things that does give the enemy a foothold in our lives.

When we start focusing on those negative things, the enemy can start working in our minds and start working on on our attitudes because if you’re giving in to bitterness and resentment (because you know life hurts sometimes and people do cruel things sometimes) so if we dwell on those, it’s so damaging because it keeps us from being able to focus on the truth that God has for us and that love that God has for us.

Hi Erin, Hi Nancy!  And so what that verse is saying is to clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, so when you think about those things, that’s saying clothe yourselves, wrap yourselves in those things and let that be what people see. When you go out, let people see those traits about you. Let them see you treat them with compassion, kindness, and humility.

It doesn’t say if you’re in the mood for it. It doesn’t say if people are being nice to you. It’s just saying CLOTHE yourself in those things because that’s what’s going to protect you. That’s part of that spiritual armor when you’re living rightly you’re having that that mindset that is focused on God being your Savior and not getting sucked into the negativity and the bitterness and all those things, because again, when you dwell on that negative stuff, when you dwell on the bitterness and how you’ve been hurt, you’re not leaving room for God to work. But if you turn it over to Him, and you say, “okay, God, this is a very painful thing, but I don’t want to give in to that pride and defending myself and having to try to prove myself righteous or try to prove myself right, but I  want you to handle it.”

When you give it over to Him instead, you can have a lot of healing in that. Being able to trust that He’s got it, being able to trust that no matter what you’ve been hurt by, no matter what has happened in your life being able trust that He knows. He has it.

I love that Nancy shared the verse, “Jesus wept.” When I read that verse, that’s that empathy- that compassion that He has; because we know that there’s nothing that we could face that could possibly be worse than what He faced, and He was able to go through that and not sin – not give in to that bitterness and resentment and not dwell there because yes, those thoughts may come, but we don’t have to dwell there. That’s the beauty of it, because we have that divine intervention, we have that divine help to be able to not give in to that; not be sucked into that negativity and that in that downward path that gives the enemy room to work.

So, there’s a whole lot of power in being able to let go of those things; let go of the bitterness and resentment and anger and be able to just forgive and let God step in and not feel like we have to be the ones to defend ourselves, sometimes. Because it’s so tempting to want to do that, to try to prove ourselves to be the right ones. It’s so tempting to want to do that, but in the big picture, when you’re giving it to God and asking Him for His guidance, and you’re asking for His help, then He’s going to help.

So our breath prayer for this week is,because when you’re praying to have that compassion for others, maybe even praying that God would help you to see others as He sees them, because it’s going to be a whole different outlook. It’s going to be much, much different because we have all made mistakes, we have all given into that sin from time to time, just giving in to that temptation to feed into those negative thoughts, but that’s why we have a Savior; because we have someone who has covered all of those for us. So that helps us; we have that divine help to be able to focus on what’s good and pure and right just as scripture says.  It’s not just “do this because it’s the rule,” it’s because that’s what is protecting us. It’s protecting us from going down that slippery slope into a dark place.

Have any of you been in that dark place before where you’ve given into the bitterness and the resentment and anger? It’s hard to get out of that and if you have been, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It becomes a vicious cycle and it can weigh heavy on you. It can be something that really weighs you down and affects every area of your life.

I’m sure some of you have probably experienced that before. I know I’ve been at a place like that before. There’s so much freedom in being able to let that go and be able to seek that compassion instead.

So you guys doing okay this evening? I see several people who have joined. You guys can also share with me some of your favorite verses that go along with that anything comes to mind. Our breath prayer for the week is again helped me replace bitterness with compassion.

If you haven’t already signed up for the mailing list and you’re interested in that, you can get the free prayer guide on dealing with anxiety through prayer and it has some pretty solid information in there. I also invite you to make requests. How can I help you? So, keep in mind that’s always an invitation to share with me what you’d like to see approached on the blog or in the breath prayers- what might be helpful to you because I’m here to help. I’m here to be a support.

I hope you guys have a wonderful evening and if you’re watching this later, wonderful time of day whenever it is.

so I hope it’s a great week for you.