Zephaniah 3:20
God will save the lame and gather the outcast; I will give them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. When I restore your fortunes before your eyes says the Lord.
What are your fortunes? As I reflect upon what my fortunes are and what I hold dear to my heart, it becomes quite clear. God, my family, children, grandchildren, parents and my siblings along with my closest friends.
Alot of times these “fortune” relationships become broken and we within ourselves cannot repair the damage. We can do all we can to try and fix the relationship by learning what not to do and seeking God for what we need to change within ourselves. Applying what he gives us and do the best we can going forward. Sometimes this is not enough. We as humans struggle with forgiveness and cut people totally out of our lives, or we hold them at bay never really forgiving them and don’t give the person a chance to get close again. By not allowing the person to try and make the change that needs to be made within the relationship to restore a relationship of love and companionship. The relationship becomes an artificial relationship at best.
I recall a time when I told one of my prize fortunes that I would even go to counseling with them. I was told no, go get my own counselor. This is all well and good, I suppose, if you don’t want the relationship restored. With that being said, counselors who don’t recommend family counseling, stay away from. You want restoration not division. Some counselors break more relationships up just to make one’s life seem to appear so much better. God doesn’t work that way, it’s always a two-way street. His word says he works it out for all of our good. If one gets better with making the other party an outcast, my friends that is not restoration but division. But there are counselors who offer up family counseling which I did go to. It was totally Christian based and a wonderful counseling center. My counselor being a woman and I don’t want to be bias here, but women should go to women counselors and men to men counselors. And another thing, if you are a Christian, go to a Christian counselor. Feeling the pain of this broken relationship with my prize fortune was devastation. Nothing I could do within myself to restore the brokenness in the relationship. You can’t be good enough, nice enough or do enough to repair the “prize fortunes” relationship. As the old saying goes, if I could go back 10 or 20 years ago, I would do things different. But in reality, we can’t, we can’t change the past. What’s done is done. All we can do is move forward, reaching for a better way of doing things and looking forward to a brighter future for the relationship.
We must turn it over to the master to repair and restore the relationship. It may not happen right away and again it could take a long time for the relationship to be restored. God has to do his work in us and others. We as humans have a work to do ourselves. We are to seek God and his ways of doing things, make the changes when we learn something about ourselves that we can change. Ask God to help us in our weaknesses and our strengths. We have to pray for the relationship, casting all our cares upon the Lord for he cares for us. He wants us to lean upon him and not our own understanding. Give him our broken hearts and our cares. Pray, don’t pick it back up thinking we can make it happen in our timing and our way of doing things, leave it with him and let him do his majestic, supernatural work. If the person has put up the road sign, stop – do not enter, trust me you are not getting in. But, with God all things are possible, so we have hope for the restoration.
God will in his time work things out for all of our good. My prayer for you is that you bring your most prize fortunes to the master and trust him to do his magnificent work. Trust the process and move forward. Let go and let God.
God be with you and yours.
Daphne Pendley