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#295857 - 07/22/08 11:10 PM
Is Someone Trying to Get Back into Your Life?
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Member
Registered: 08/08/02
Posts: 962
Loc: Las Vegas, NV
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Shlomo Lkhoolkhoon,
Here is a great prayer that was on another site I belong to. There was no attribution.
Poosh BaShlomo Lkhoolkhoon,
Yuhannon
Is Someone Trying to Get Back into Your Life?
Bible Excerpt from Genesis 33:3-21
[Jacob] went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept . . . Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself." Jacob said, "No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God--since you have received me with such favor."
Reflection by Lillian Daniel
As a young man, Jacob had stolen his brother’s blessing and inheritance, and then scampered off like a chicken. But life didn’t turn out to be so easy for the young con artist. He became the victim of deception himself when his father-in-law tricked him into marrying his fiancé’s sister, and he had to wait years and years to marry the woman he really loved. Life matured Jacob. He grew up. He longed to reconcile with his brother Esau.
When their tribes finally met, Jacob didn’t know if Esau was bringing family members to judge him or troops to kill him. Instead his big brother greeted him with hugs and tears of joy. Sometimes the people we have hurt surprise us with their big hearts. To make himself feel better, Jacob had brought Esau all kinds of presents. Esau, a successful man, didn’t need them, but in another act of generosity, accepted them anyway. Sometimes the most giving thing we can do is to accept another person’s gift.
Is there someone who is trying to find a way back into your life? Is there someone offering you gifts you don’t need, but gifts they need to give? Esau had every right to stay angry, but he opened up his heart instead. It felt like a miracle. That’s why Jacob said, "To see your face is like seeing the face of God."
Prayer
Open my heart to the gifts of the sorrowful, so that I can be part of your divine healing, Lord Christ. Amen.
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#295960 - 07/24/08 02:27 PM
Re: Is Someone Trying to Get Back into Your Life?
[Re: Alice]
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Member
Registered: 08/08/02
Posts: 962
Loc: Las Vegas, NV
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I think that we must be always careful...we should forgive completely those who have wronged us, and we should be gracious and polite when they approach us for reconciliation or anything else, but we should also be cautious to entangle ourselves in a relationship with them again...people who *chose* not love us and/or to wrong us, or to be jealous of us, or to control us, or to slander us, or to be our enemy, will rarely change enough (barring a spiritual rebirth) that we should trust them, especially if they are not seriously practicing Christians.
Trust is something which takes many years to establish and the Bible says that there will be division between believers and unbelievers in families.
Alice Shlomo Alice, I agree with your points, but I think the point is that we have to be open to the possibility of a change in others. Poosh BaShlomo, Yuhannon
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