James 4.1-3

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 

“Hurt people hurt people”

(guest blog by Katie Forbess - President IRSM)

On this Transformational Tuesday, I am thankful for a continual process that God has set in my heart.  I remember after being married about 2 years and in the middle of a disagreement with my husband, he stopped the conversations by saying, “I don’t know who you are talking to but maybe you should figure it out and then we can try to talk again.”

I used past pain and anger of a disagreement with someone else to fuel the fire of the argument I was having.  When I took the time to figure out where it came from, I presented it to God for healing (that happened about 10 years later).  After learning the connection between hurt and hurting others, I was able to work on making it stop and go through the healing process.

Honestly, there are many times when my reactions are automatic and Satan wants me to believe the lie that my anger is something that can’t be controlled and that they deserve my lashing out.  God always wants to be the one to heal my pain and stop me from hurting others.

Think of the last time you hurt someone.  Remember the circumstances and your reactions.  Ask God to show you where your pain originated.  Was it with the current person and situation or someone before them?  Then take that situation and give it to God, allowing the healing power of transformation and reconciliation to work in your life.