Messages from Our Hearts - WWL Staff

Messages from our hearts...

How to Overcome Unforgiveness

Unforgiveness in your heart is like having poison in your veins. It can lead you to death if you do not seek the antidote. Forgiving people who hurt us is extremely hard to do. You can feel pain from what they have caused you, making it difficult to release true forgiveness. Trying to take control of a situation or to take revenge on a specific person will only further complicate the destruction of yourself. God clearly says in His word, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19 ESV)

No one is claiming it is easy to forgive a wrong that comes against us; however, you can help yourself counteract the poison by courageously moving forward into forgiving anyone who has offended you.

When we trust God and choose to forgive, we can rest assured that God will take care of the rest. Forgiveness is our “seed” of obedience to God’s Word, and we can trust that God will honor His Word and will be faithful to bring a harvest in one way or another. Do not allow your unforgiveness to hinder your faith from working, creating a barrier. By the power of the Spirit, confess any unforgiveness in your heart, and go to the person immediately presenting forgiveness and grace - do not wait and allow bitterness to brew.

“Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins.” (Matthew 11:24-25 NIV)

Your communication with God needs to flow freely, and if sin resides from unforgiveness, communication with God becomes blocked.

Do not give the devil any foothold or advantage over you, because if he wins in this battle it can become a stronghold over your life. Unforgiveness is poison!

We cannot forgive without the power of the Holy Spirit. Humble yourself and read John 20:22-23. Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit!” In the very next verse he said, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

God’s Word clearly tells us throughout to forgive and be forgiven. Get rid of all the poison that comes from unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment.

Courage to repent of unforgiveness will wash away the spiritual filthiness by draining the poison of death that stops life. As you are obedient to wash in the POWER of God’s Word and offer forgiveness to your offender, forgive in Jesus’ Name. This will bring refreshment to your soul and restore communication with the God who loves you most. Your life will become alive as the burden of sin is lifted and you are able to move about freely without the weight of resentment, restoring all communication with your Creator as you confess your sin.

Taken from the book: “Courageous Steps of Faith: With God All Things Are Possible”

Kimberly Hobbs

Founder and Executive Director Women World Leaders

Biblical Principles for Everyday Living

WHAT TO DO WHEN…YOU ARE CHARGED TOO LITTLE

“For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.” 2 Corinthians 8:21

As our local retailers were opening from the halt caused by the pandemic, I stopped by one of my favorite stores to load up on coffee. Due to covid-19, we had our 20-year-old and 18-year-old daughters living in our house, and we ALWAYS drink a log of coffee! So, I purchased it in bulk, spending far too much money but rationalizing that we were saving money by not buying from a coffee shop and that it would help keep us sane in those very crazy times!

As I was walking to the car with my big boxes, I glanced at the receipt, and realized that the cashier had not charged me the $2.99 for the small bottle of cleaner that I purchased. I was immediately convicted. But I tried to rationalize…it was only $2.99…a small part of a very large purchase. Wasn’t my time, and the cashier’s time, worth more than the $2.99? I’m sure the store could write it off. I couldn’t shake the feeling, however, that that small amount was important in God’s eyes. VERY begrudgingly, I put the boxes in the car, and turned and went back in.

When I got back up to the counter, I said to the cashier, “I don’t think you charged me for this.” She took the receipt, lifted her eyes to heaven, and said, “That devil is trying to get me today.” To which I replied, “But the devil won’t win!”

I handed her three dollars, she gave me a penny, and I left with that penny in my hand thinking – wow, I just had a God moment! If I had not spent those few minutes going back in the store to pay for an item, even though it probably would not have made a bit of difference to the store, I would not have had the opportunity to declare to all within hearing that the devil was not going to win on account of my obedience to the Holy Spirit’s prompting.

God cares about the little things, but He cares about the little things because they lead to the big things. I don’t know how that moment that inconvenienced me affected the cashier or those around us – but I have to believe that as I left with that penny in my hand, I swept the spirit of the devil out of that door and put a smile on God’s face!

Ephesians 5:8-10 (NIV) tells us, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.”

Our problem is not often knowing what pleases or displeases the Lord, but following through on doing that which pleases Him. We know it’s wrong to allow it to slip by when we are charged the wrong amount, but we tend to put a weight on ‘how wrong’ it is and balance it against ‘how inconvenient it is’ to make it right. What if we simply focused on ‘pleasing the Lord’ by setting ourselves aside? What if we did everything for His glory? I bet our corners of the world would begin to look different as we let the light shine in!

Do you have a question that we can explore together? We are iron sharpening iron and I’d love to hear from you! You can reach me at julie@womenworldleaders. com. I don’t have all the answers, but God does! Let’s seek them together!

Julie Jenkins

Teaching and Curriculum Leader julie@womenworldleaders.com

Heart of a Missionary

TO KNOW HIM, AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN

It was a divine detour.

The airport baggage security man was rummaging through my bags, unpacking every single thing. It didn’t hit me until he pulled something out of my suitcase and the entire feeling in the room changed. You could cut the tension with a knife. No, it wasn’t my underwear, not my medication… but my Bible. I held my breath as he continued to pull out multiple books and other reading materials. I could feel every eye on me as I continued to walk out of the airport. It was clear—Christianity was not really welcome here.

As I frantically started googling on my phone, searching to find out what the laws were, I found myself unexpectedly in a country where public worship for Christians is restricted, sharing the Gospel is prohibited, and Bibles cannot be found in bookstores. You see I

wasn’t supposed to be here. This was a very unexpected detour to me—but not to God. My flight out of Nairobi got delayed and I ended up missing my connecting flight back home to Miami. What was supposed to be a quick transfer passing through this airport, off of one plane and onto the next, had just turned into an overnight stay outside of the airport.

I made it to the hotel room and locked the door. I wondered if it was possible that I might end up in jail, or even worse. But there was a much more pressing thought on my mind from the Holy Spirit—I was a Christian in a place where people did not usually have the opportunity to interact with Christians or the ability to read God’s Word.

So I wrote out Scripture containing the Gospel on a piece of paper, leaving it on the hotel nightstand, praying that whoever would read it would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

My heart for the lost comes from my own experience of living the first 28 years of my life without knowing Jesus personally, until I traveled 2,000 miles away from my home in Florida to a different continent, where a man asked me a simple question, “Are you born again?”

I think about that Kenyan man often, whom I know absolutely nothing about - not even his name, who pointed me to Jesus. Those four words that led me to study the Scriptures in search of answers to his question.

“And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 3:15 NIV

Scripture can lead to the understanding of the Gospel and has the power to bring those who read it to faith. God speaks through His Word and the Holy Spirit convicts.

“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 Peter 1:23 NIV

There are so many who are banned from access to reading God’s Word. I got the slightest glimpse into this during my unexpected layover. Although my experience for one night in a hotel in a country that is not welcoming to the Gospel cannot even compare to the daily difficulties that Christians in similar countries have to endure for a lifetime, it did open my eyes. And it shook me. The suppression of Christianity was no longer something I had only read about in a far-away place.

Imagine your life without the Bible. Many of us take it for granted, many of us may even think that reading it is a chore. But through the study of Scripture, we are able to get to know God; and through the application of Scripture, we are empowered to make Him known to others.

There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t open God’s Word and remember that night in that hotel, reminding me of the heartache I felt for all those denied the opportunity that is at my own fingertips. Don’t ever take the blessing God has granted you to know Him and to make Him known.

Lauren Dean

Missionary, Author, & Speaker Founding Board Member & Vice-President at

African Orphan Educational Foundation Global Business & Missions Director at Women World Leaders lauren@womenworldleaders.com