Rending the Veil of Resentment

It's easy to be mad. It's easy to point fingers. It's easy to fill your thoughts with resentment. Sometimes people do things that defy logic. As you sit helplessly and watch their uncompassionate actions, anger and resentment begin to flow. Your emotions resemble the pre-eruptive state of a volcano. Will you allow the lava-like resentment to flow through your heart until it erupts?

Emotional outrage is the pre-eruption state of physical reaction.  Heart-pain is found in the layer of resentment where blame festers as a hot upwelling fury. Left uncooled, resentment explodes into a shameful repetition of the very act that infuriates you. That's how an abused person becomes an abuser and continues the resentment by abusing others. Pointing fingers of blame is as useless as trying to put fallen leaves back on a tree. Angrily building resentment by blaming others began with Adam and Eve. They passed on their blaming ways to their children - Cain killed his brother Abel. Do you pass on resentment in your family?

 Resentment causes you to become unfeeling and numb. Unfeeling people point fingers of blame out of unforgiven shamefulness. If someone has done something to you that has caused you to feel shameful, give your pain to God and ask Him to forgive the shame causing person. Jesus felt our pain. Jesus felt the pain of separation from his Father. He took the numbness of resentment upon his own heart and carried upon the cross and into the grave. Here is a story that examines the evolution of resentment. The conclusion of the story shows you how resentment is removed.

I CAN'T FEEL MY BODY

 Written by: 

A Tree

 I can't feel my body.

I stand here naked and unfeeling.

 My leaves have left me; they fell away in the fall.

I'm exposed to the bitter cold of winter judgment.

My branches stretch out like arms with frost bitten fingers.

My sap no longer flows; my lifeblood seems frozen inside me.

 I can't feel my body.

 I'm in a place of unfeeling, a place of lonely coldness.

My bark is crystallized, imprisoned with ice.

Some branches are broken from the weight of the snow.

My roots no longer stretch in the frozen earth below.

The leaves I once wore are blown away by the arctic air.

 I can't feel my body.

So why can I feel pain?

 Where do I feel pain, if I can't feel my body?

Some pain is my own. Others have hurt me and now their pain I own.

I watch people suffer and I soak up their sufferings like rain.

 In a prison of pain I am frozen, in a cell all alone.

I can't feel my body.

 I know I can pray. Should I ask for the pain to be taken away?

 Or is the pain a gift designed by God to give me a lift.

 Is all of His creation a classroom for me?

Out of my bleakness can I develop a "seekness?"

 Can I seek spring and the healing warmth it will bring?

I can't feel my body.

 I was a tree in the beginning, at the very first Fall.

The Fall of you, Mankind, because you wanted it all.

I held the fruit you picked that caused you guilt and shame.

You wear it now like a mantle; it's become a part of your name.

Unable to take it off, you react in fear pointing fingers of blame.

I can't feel my body.

 I was a tree cut down and floated through town on 39 rivers of blood.

A Man was made to carry me and all of you upon my sturdy wood.

They froze Him to me with cold steel, pounded through His hands and feet.

I held Him like a leaf until He died and fell from my branches.

His last words I remember: "Please give them second chances."

Jesus rent the veil of our fleshly resentment with his sacrificial death. Let your resentment die. Sacrifice your resentment on the cross of forgiveness. Rip the curtain that separates love from fear. I will stop here and leave you with Ephesians 4:31-32 GOD’S WORD Translation

³¹ Get rid of your bitterness, hot tempers, anger, loud quarreling, cursing, and hatred. ³² Be kind to each other, sympathetic, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you through Christ.

Today's Wise Saying is from Proverbs 24:19-20

Proverbs 24:19-20

New International Version (NIV)

Saying 29

¹⁹ Do not fret because of evildoers
    or be envious of the wicked,
²⁰ for the evildoer has no future hope,
    and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

Proverbs 24:19-20

The Message (MSG)

29

^19-20 Don’t bother your head with braggarts
    or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
Those people have no future at all;
    they’re headed down a dead-end street.

Proverbs 24:19-20

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁹ Fret not because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked,

²⁰ For there shall be no reward for the evil man; the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

Proverbs 24:19-20

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁹ Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked:
²⁰ For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.

LET GO
Deprivation reproduces through unforgiveness.
LET GO
Resentment is repetitive through unforgiveness.
LET GO
Shame is recreated through unforgiveness.
LET GO
Blame revives shame through unforgiveness.
  
Heart-Storming Challenge 

• Do you experience negative feelings when bad people succeed?
• Is there any festering resentment in you that is infecting your family?
• Can you recognize resentment in others?
• Do you ask the Holy Spirit how to minister to shame filled people?
  

   Thanks for your time. Go do something nice for somebody.

Jesus loves you and so do we.