A Cancer that Destroys its Host

Cancer is known to kill it's host and as a result destroys itself. In other words, it survives by depleting and overwhelming the necessary food supply of the host body until it is too weak to survive. Of course, once the host body dies so does the cancer cells. 

Unforgiveness in the human soul acts much the same way.  It is a cancer that depletes the human heart eventually destroying the host. The fermentation in the mind feeds the bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness into a bloating tumor consuming the person's energy and devotion.  It is never satisfied until the host person is dead on the inside of it's dreams, vision, and freedom from misery. As with cancer which requires the cooperation of other cells; unforgiveness requires the cooperation of the person's thought life to survive. Cancer depends on it's environment to survive and so does unforgiveness.

The unhealthy power of resident unforgiveness
 

Not forgiving is like laying flowers at a grave daily, you are no longer planting seeds for a better tomorrow. By doing so I am memorializing the event, keeping it alive in the memory. Just as the flowers are losing their fragrance due to being separated from it's life source, so am I when I lay down at the scene of the incident and not moving forward.  Some things die and you need to let it die and never go back and visit. When I don't forgive I turn my back on my future.

Unforgiveness has a colored pencil in its hand and will color how you look at things now. It has the power to change the person perception concerning people and situations in the present as well the things in the future.

Allow the past to be a learning experience but refuse it becoming a continuing punishment. People reminding you and attempting to get you to build a house at certain incidents in your past must be resisted. What’s done is done- move on and do not permit others to control your direction. If you keep looking over your shoulder while trying to walk forward will cause you to bump into people you otherwise would have avoided.

As long as I carry resentment towards the past  in my heart, the less capable I will be of loving in the present! Resentment, unforgiveness, and bitterness are all weeds that choke out the ability of love to grow in our hearts. Protect the garden of your life with diligence and plant God's Word in it's soil, and saturate it everyday with the His presence through prayer.

I have found that it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then. When people remind me of things in the past, they are referencing many times to a different time when I was a different person. I can't relate to that person anymore because I have moved on.

Did you know you can victimize yourself by wallowing around in your own past literally becoming a hostage to things you can't change. However, we are not victims but over-comers and more than conquerors!

Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Are We Misdiagnosing People on Purpose

It appears we are using the word "hater(s)" today to describe and judge anyone who disagrees with us. Just because a person disagrees with my opinions, ideas, policies, or decisions does not make them a hater. I am afraid it is being used to manipulate others into submission or silence their voices of opposition. No one wants to be labeled as a hater, so the wilting of intestinal fortitude subsides to maintain a supposed good name. The problem is that when we silence the arena of ideas by word manipulation, we open ourselves up to becoming a society of mindless robotic humans who live in fear of expressing their opinions and thoughts.

We have to be able to withstand challenges to our ideas and not wear our feelings on our sleeves or resort to labeling and misdiagnosing people's motives. When our ego becomes the most treasured part of our being and we do all to protect it - then we are projecting that everyone's opinions that differ than ours do not matter. This requires everyone else to submit to our ideas and there is no option and if you dare oppose then the consequences will be you being ostracized and labeled as insignificant.

To be frank, what I just described above is the height of selfishness. Is this what we are spiraling into as a civilized world? The irony of that is that selfishness does not create a civilized world, humility does. The essence of humility is taking a sane view of oneself and thinking of others before ourselves.

By welcoming other opinions and opposition we actually increase the effectiveness of a plan, policy, or ideas because of drawing from different perspectives. Selfishness says my perspective is the exclusive and ultimate view while humility says let's hear all sides and permit wisdom to weigh all options and make a quality decision that benefits more than me.

Criticism is always difficult to accept, but if we receive it with humility and a desire to improve our character it can be very helpful. Only a fool does not profit when he is rebuked for his mistakes. If I do not accept constructive criticism and silence it by labeling the individual, I have shut off a facilitator of growth in my life. Let's remember that every person who disagrees with us is not a hater. They may be the means to development and maturity in our lives.
  

Proverbs 15:5  A fool despiseth his father's instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.