"A Mouthful"

Stepping Out in RED Shoes!

- Day 166 -

  

Have you puked on anyone lately?

Recently, while in the prayer closet, God put a dear friend on my heart and revealed to me that there was a stronghold in her life that was the result of a mistake she had made decades ago. 

Sure enough, my friend had gone though a rough patch for a season and had made some bad choices that eventually became public knowledge.  That’s when things got ugly.  Everybody was talking – family, friends, neighbors, church people, co-workers, even people that didn’t actually know her from Adam, threw in their two cents. 

Everyone had something to say!

• “Did you hear about her?   
• You know she did that, right? 
•  Oh my!  How could she do such a thing and call herself a Christian, no less.   
• Shame!  Shame! 
• There’s no hope for her.
•  She’ll never amount to anything now! 
•  I know I can’t support her.”

Then it got worse.  People began to label her.  She became one of  THOSE  people.  She was put into a category and labeled – tagged – marked -- branded.   Like  Hester Prynne from Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter,  you would have thought she wore  a big letter on her chest, because when people looked at her they only thought one thing.  

From that point on, people defined her by her sin.

Wait a minute!  Didn’t Jesus say,

“Let any one of you who is without sin, 

be the first to throw a stone at her?”

(John 8:7)

So why then were so many casting stones?

Of course, that short season of her life was miniscule in comparison to all the days of her exemplary life, past and future.   She repented and moved on to bigger and better things, staying on the straight and narrow with Christ, but many people never moved on with her.  To this day, they’re still talking.

"That’s what needs to be pulled down.”  the LORD said.

“Over the years, that verbal vomit has encrusted itself

on her mind.  All the things she heard and over-heard

people say about her,  all those thoughts and opinions,

gossip and conversations, words that were spoken –

some to her face and some behind her back – they went

out into the atmosphere and adhered themselves to her

creating a stronghold.  

Chisel it away with your prayers, Gail!

Break it off!  Pull it down!  Dispose of it!”   

said the LORD.   “Let’s set her free!”

For days on end, I entered the prayer closet, on my friend’s behalf, chiseling away at that cemented mindset .  I was flabbergasted at the size of the project God had assigned me to.  It was as if she was encased and imprisoned by the rubble of an earthquake. 

It took me forever, to find her and free her.

Every day, I prayerfully pulled down the layers of rebuke, gossip and judgementalism and heaved it onto the back of the Holy Spirit, who carried it off to a faraway place.  Take note:  This wasn't my friend's sin.  She had long confessed and repented of that and God has forgiven her.  This was the debris heaped on her by people having ugly, hateful and condemning conversations about her.  That kind of residue takes a long time to clean up.

Psalm 103:12 says...

"As far as the east is from the west, 

so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

After seeing, up front, the inhibiting effects of the verbal vomit of people, I know that surely there must have be times in which I must have spoken stupid opinions out into the atmosphere around me. 

“Father God…  Forgive me of my error.  Forgive me for the times I’ve ignorantly lent myself to the opposing team and been a part of building prisons around people’s minds.  From this day forward, sensitize me to the nature of the words I speak.   Let my conversation be forever positive, encouraging and uplifting!  May You be the one who speaks through me, and may I bring my personal opinions to the toilet to be flushed before they contaminate the atmosphere and condemn those who really need to be loved more than ever before.  

Proverbs 18:21 says...

"The tongue has the power of life and death,

 and those who love it will eat its fruit."

Yes, it's sad when people make big mistakes -- but don't we all?  Don't you think the Body of Christ needs to move more quickly and efficiently towards restoration?  I do.  I want to be part of the Love Patrol that reaches out and supports those who have slipped.  I want to love them and help them get back on their feet, not commit them to life imprisonment.

In RED shoes,

Gail