“Forgiveness Heals You” – We Are Not Enemies

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Hatred. Resentment. Jealousy. Anger. Pain.

These weights will pull you down and never let you up. They will trap us and twist us around until we become totally lost.

But God promises hope! When we turn our faces to Him and follow in His example on the cross, He offers us healing. He offers us relief. He offers to make us whole again – all we have to do is let go of the pain others have inflicted on us.

Please, come listen in to this special episode as I tell the story of God’s faithfulness in restoring my relationship with my mother.

My prayer is that it encourages you to forgive, too.

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Transcript

Elaine Beck 0:10
Hi, everyone, Elaine Beck here, and so happy to be here with Kathleen Winn, my dear friend who is running for Congress in the state of Arizona. And today we’re going to talk a little bit about how God is working around the world, let alone in this nation. And I’m going to share with her my story, and you’re going to get to listen to it again, I hope I’m not boring you too much. But there’s so much to be said about the vision that God gave me five years ago. And the scripture that he gave me at that time, that five weeks ago, we reminded me of, and that Scripture is, If my people who are called by my name, would humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways and sin and seek my face, then I will heal their land. And, you know, we’ve all heard this, and it’s had meaning. But now it’s got a greater meaning Kathleen, because God told me when I was trying to figure out what to do, to be a child of God and, and spread His word and everything. And I was about ready to give up on some of my thoughts. Because everything that I said, I do, God said, No, it’s too dangerous. No, it’s not going to work. No, they’re going to, they’re going to make a sham of it. Don’t do it. And so just as I was in that mode, God told me that reminded me of that scripture, and then he told me the real meaning behind it. And the real meaning behind it is, he said, when I say Humble yourselves, I’m not just talking about your daily prayer, when you come to me and say, I’m sorry for my sins. I’m sorry, I hurt a friend. I’m sorry, I didn’t do what you asked me. I’m sorry, I didn’t read your word. Any of those things that’s humbling ourselves, of course. And and when we were saved, yes, when we humbly went before him, that was so powerful, and wonderful. And it gave us an eternal life. But in this instance, he said, I’m talking about the fact that you are all so busy, being angry, you’re acting like the enemy. You’re being hateful and spiteful. And your, your anger is causing you to not be like my children. And I’ve told you to pray for your enemies. And that’s what I’m talking about humbling yourselves, and quit comparing yourself to others and thinking you’re better, because you’re no better than that, that murderer, or that thief, or that child molester, you’re not, you’re a sinner, right? We all fall under that. And we are told to forgive our enemies. And he said, when I said in their seek my face, I mean that you need to be one with me. And you need the one with me. When you ask to forgive your enemies. You need to close your eyes, and seek my face, and humble yourself, and turn from your wicked ways of hate and anger, and pray for your enemies. And it was so powerful when I heard it.

Kathleen Winn 3:54
I want to just say that I think that the divisiveness and the hatred, and the factions that are exist in our country right now are part of how the it’s so easy to destroy a country when when that’s what’s ruling the day, right.

Elaine Beck 4:13
We’re letting the devil in.

Kathleen Winn 4:14
We are and if we don’t forgive our enemies, and we don’t humble ourselves to God, we will have more of the same and it’ll it will be the destruction. Yesterday, Mike Johnson became the Speaker of the House and he spoke very powerfully about his relationship with God, how he was going to lead through that. He is a man of faith. I took that personally as a sign from God, that he’s with us and that he is helping us restore. But your message Elaine is very important because I think we can get caught up in the day to day and if someone says something to us, that’s offensive or they don’t like us for some reason, or they don’t like what we’re doing, it’s easy to get caught into that I call it the middle school way of thinking, yeah. Grade school. Yeah, a lot of people get older, but they are still stuck in seventh grade. I think that we have to start to be mature, not old, but just be responsible for this great life that God has given us. And be grateful for that, and show gratitude and grace to others.

Elaine Beck 5:25
Well, that’s why when God gave me that, and we went through the after the first year, he said, No, we went through the Christmas, and Hanukkah being a Judeo Christian country. And he said, No, because everybody looks the other way. And they’re more interested in packages and trees, that’s not going to work. And that’s why we got to Thanksgiving. And so Thanksgiving, when everybody gets together with family and friends, and you’re sitting around the table, I hope that you’ll share this. Because on that Sunday, on November 26, after Thanksgiving, we’re going to have a kickoff day, for a national season of forgiveness.

Kathleen Winn 6:10
I love it.

Elaine Beck 6:11
And this national season of forgiveness is going to last from November 26 of 23 till November 26, of 24. And is that not perfect? God’s perfect timing, that he has laid it out in the year that we are going to be going through a season of change in this country. And how powerful it is, there’s been no other time like this. And, and, and we are in a battle between good and evil, every day, every day. But just because we think we’re right, we’re no more right than than they are if we stoop to their level, if we don’t look to God, if we don’t seek- I mean, I think it’s so powerful to think about, anytime you pray, to shut your eyes and bond with God, look into his face, speak to him directly, be in His presence. And when we do that, if we do that every day for a year, we don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to spend no money, you don’t have to be on the right or the left. You don’t have to be up or down. You don’t have to be at home or at church. You can do this anywhere you are.

Kathleen Winn 7:33
I think it’s such a great point. Because God knows our hearts and our mind. And if we say the words, but we’re being hypocritical, and we’re picking and choosing, oh, well, I like that person, so I’ll forgive them. But that person really bothers me.

Elaine Beck 7:51
We’re human we are.

Kathleen Winn 7:53
I think it’s about understanding that everyone has humanity. And you don’t have to agree with them. No, but you can forgive. And really forgiveness heals you. And if we are healthier, and we are whole, and we are one with God, we will be a healed people. And I think that is exactly I love that is the next year. It takes us through the election cycle, right? And I think it’s a perfect time for us to focus on God first, and then let him take care of the rest of this. Because if we can love his people, then then we will have our nation restored.

Elaine Beck 8:28
Right? Well, you know, I point out to everybody, at this point, that the other scripture is when Jesus was on the cross, what did he say? Forgive them for they know not what they do. Do any of us really know what we’re doing? I mean, really do? Do we have all knowledge and all wisdom? No. Are we seeking it? I hope so every day every day, I hope that we’re trying to do our best. And we’re trying to live a righteous life. But let’s face it, God knows He sent Jesus in the form of a man. He knows what it feels like to be a human being. Okay, so who can best understand what we’re dealing with? But he’s asking us to go that extra mile right now, so that he can heal our land. And when he says our land, his land is the world, right? It’s not just the United States. But we in the United States have the freedom when you and I were young? Yes. And we had all of that. And we’ve allowed-

Kathleen Winn 9:38
We’ve squandered it?

Elaine Beck 9:39
Yes. And we’ve allowed the devil to command and run too much of it. And to become a have a bigger say in what we’re doing and how we feel. And when I look at the people in this country, that have been lied to and, and and they’ve been deceived in so many ways. I just think that this is the way that God is going to help us to love our neighbor as ourselves, which is the greatest thing that he has told us to do besides loving him first, am I right?

Kathleen Winn 10:16
Absolutely. Yeah, we have to love her neighbor as ourself. And we have to do- I always say it’s all God’s stuff. Yeah, he entrust us with his, with our own children, our own grandchildren, our own family members, our neighbors, right. You know, there is no perfect person, thus to your message about forgiveness. He’s already saying to you and to me, you know, I know you’re human, right? I know, you’re gonna have failings. So part of that forgiveness is for us to forgive ourselves. We’re not perfect. No, there is no perfect person. Jesus was the only person that walked on this earth. That was perfect. Because in his greatest moment of pain, to your point, he said, Father, they know not what they do forgive them. The moment where he was being crucified. He asked his father to forgive the people that were killing him. I don’t know of a greater example of forgiveness. No, the No. And we and, and I’m not that good. Like, I hold grudges. I’m a human being. I try not to. But I think that what an example if we can live more like that. And if we can be more like that we can start to heal the land with his health.

Elaine Beck 11:28
I’ll tell you all a story, okay. about something that happened in my life. That really helped me understand this better. When I was a little girl, I had four sisters, it was five girls. And my mother didn’t particularly care for me. I was sort of treated like the black sheep. And we all know that, you know, some people rub us the wrong way. We have children, and we try to love them all equally, but they’re all different.

Kathleen Winn 12:03
Absolutely.

Elaine Beck 12:04
So you can’t, it’s not human to think that you can. But years go by, and I tried and tried to win over my mom and get her love. I was hungry for her love. And that’s natural for a little girl to want the love of their mom. And I could never understand why she treated me the way she did. I just wanted her love me. And even friends and family saw the difference between the way I was treated and the other kids. I was 40 years old, before my mother woke up to wanting to know me and become my friend, 40 years old. So for 40 years, I prayed for God to give me a mother that loved me. And when he did, one of my friends said to me, how can you forgive her for all the awful things she did to you? And said to you? And I said, Well, I prayed to God for my mom to love me for 40 years. I cannot throw it back in God’s face. And say now I don’t want her because I do. And he answered my prayer, right? And I have a mom now that loves me. Yes. And he gave me a forgiving heart. And you have to understand that there’s always going to be disagreements. And there’s always going to be people that see things differently than you. And there’s always going to be moms like my mom, who I found out later, was so abused as a child, that it was a miracle that she could function, let alone be the good mom that she was in many ways, the mom that I wanted to love me. So I’m grateful for that. And I’m so grateful now that God is using that lesson that he taught me to share with others, that all we have to do is forgive and our pain goes away. Because like you said, the other person’s not suffering. You are causing your own grief when you don’t forgive others. So we need to do that.

Kathleen Winn 14:33
Absolutely. We need to do that. And what a wonderful story about you and your mom and sometimes when you really want something and you finally get it it’s almost like in disbelief because you’re used to it not being that way right. And it almost you almost have to be willing to change. I think it’s great that you were smart enough to not throw it back in and say why did you take so long God.

Elaine Beck 15:00
right are now you know, while I’m not going to treat her nice, she wasn’t nice to me and no, that’s not it. No. And you know, I treasured that. And my mother lived to be 91 years old. And so we had a lot more years together of caring about each other and loving one another. And I was able to be with her till the day she died. And so it became my treasure. So we need to understand that God is trying to give us back a treasure of our land. Yes, and our world. And he’s trying to open our eyes again, to how much his love can change anything, and can make it all good again. Yeah, we just have to give up the hate and the anger. Get away from the darkness. Run back towards the light. Let’s just run that way as quick as we can. And forgive our enemies. And God will bless us for it. Thank you for being with me today, Kathleen,

Kathleen Winn 16:02
thanks for having me.

Elaine Beck 16:03
I couldn’t have shared that story as easily without my friend.

Kathleen Winn 16:07
I’m thrilled to be here and be a part of it. And I think everyone will be blessed by that story.

Elaine Beck 16:12
Thank you. Thank you. Well, everybody, we’re closing our show for today. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for letting me continue to share with you the reasons why we need to forgive our enemies, please go to WeAreNotEnemies.com. Again, that’s WeAreNotEnemies.com and see everything about it. And how you can participate in prayer are getting a prayer group together, making each other accountable for this, doing wonderful things that will cause this to grow over the next year. God bless you. And you know, I’m always praying for you so pray for us.

 

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