05 April, 2012

Take Heart, I've given you heart-friends

I want to say that I'm so blessed with friends, not just the acquaintance-type who swell out my Facebook friends-list to enormous proportions. But true heart-friends who love me for who I am.

I'm struggling to write here because there are things I cannot say on this forum, but are on my heart. I've discovered someone has taken a dislike to me and is refusing to work with me, even though he doesn't know me at all. Someone else's errors have tainted his view of me. It isn't my fault and I cannot do anything about it. But it still hurts.

Thankfully the Lord knew I'd be hurting and he sent some friends yesterday to my Facebook page and they wrote the most wonderful things about me. None of them knew I was struggling, but God did and spoke encouragement into my life via my friends.

I take encouragement from the Bible too.

There are so many. Here's just one:
 Romans 8 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (NIV)
I went to sleep with this words of Jesus from our Women's retreat:
John 16   33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (NIV)

2 comments:

Hippomanic Jen said...

I hope things get sorted out with that bloke. Sometimes we just can't control how others see us, and it can be based on mistaken belief (sometimes in our favour, which is nice, but not this time).

I'm glad God sent some friends to encourage you.

KarenKTeachCamb said...

Great verses Wendy! Isn't it awesome how God knows we are going to need some encouragement, even before we know it, and prompts those who truly love us to provide that encouragement is a variety of ways.

Thinking of you friend. We can't change how others react to us (or even refuse to react to us at all, but rather react to other people's perceptions of us), but that doesn't make handling those "reactions" any easier.

Rest in who you are in Jesus, and keep that positive Self Talk happening.