Outreach Moments

While doing our habitual outreach at the petrol station, Sara approached a lady to show our Christian material and talk to her. The lady answered: “I have seen you many times at this and others petrol stations and although I never buy anything because it’s not my type of books, you help me a lot because you persist. You have a smile on your face and never give up. I like to see you.”

Well, at least, even if we don’t sell as much as we want or are outwardly successful, we realize that if we have the right attitude we may impress people the right way showing positive qualities that help them somehow to make the right decisions later on in life.

In Action

Pictures from the "Freedom Within" prison ministry cannot be published to protect privacy.

Your Need to Forgive

How do you know if you need to forgive?

By Sara Maria Ferreira

I want to ask you some questions: do you feel there is a wall between yourself and what you want to happen in your life? Do you feel that something holds you back and is keeping you from receiving what you desire? That blockage you feel might simply be lack of forgiveness. Un-forgiveness brings very negative emotions into your life and like any other kind of negative emotion; lack of forgiveness stands on the way of your ability to have your desires fulfilled.

You’ve learned from childhood that good or bad deeds are rewarded accordingly, and you don’t see any motive in forgiving something that deeply caused hurt, you feel that it is easy to just ignore the deed and the person. This sounds logic to you and it does not look like it should be a problem, but there is a problem because holding on to grudges is like carrying a heavy load, as you have to be reminding yourself constantly of what causes the hurt in the first place.

Forgiveness will solve all these problems and negativities and will free you from the shackles of resentment and grudges, it will heal you.

If you feel guilty or sad about past events or things that happened in the past you have to forgive yourself, even before you forgive others. If you feel guilty or blame yourself for anything in the past you’ll lack the belief to receive anything from God, because when you don’t forgive yourself or others you are limiting your capacity to receive anything, you feel you don’t deserve to have more. – Non-forgiveness in itself is a limiting condition. As Jesus so wisely said: If you can’t forgive others then God cannot forgive you.

To be able to forgive, you have to let go of your judgement. It is judgement of the other person that keeps you from letting go and forgiving. When you give up the stronghold of your personal judgement, forgiveness will be a lot easier to you, you’ll be able to let go of your initial personal judgement and at the same time you’ll see motives to forgive.

Peace of mind is a good motivation to forgive. Holding on to grudges does not give you peace of mind, the resentment will be popping up in your mind constantly and that will keep you from seeing the manifestation of good positive things in your life.

Remember that whatever happened in the past can’t be changed, what has been done is done and God does not dwell on past mistakes, it does not matter anymore. Your happiness, your life and your opportunities are only compliant to what is happening now and what you are planning for the future.

Un-forgiveness and holding on to grudges is a waste of energy, so in the end you are just wasting your time and energy on something you cannot do anything about anyway.

To be able to forgive it is required that you let go of your own judgments and believe that nothing bad has been done to you, as you do that and discard all anger and resentment and begin to form more happier, positive thoughts and emotions you’ll also see the blessings of God showering your life bringing upon you the things you desire and want to see manifested in your life.

(You can make a real good study about forgiveness in the book From Jesus with Love - Forgiveness)