Hi, Welcome to Girl Church, I’m Debbie Wallace!

I’ve got a question for you today…Has anybody ever done you wrong?  Anybody?  Yeah, I bet all the hands went up.  My hand is up.  I actually should have both hands up.  But you know, sometimes people do things that are wrong against us, and sometimes life is just full of injustice.  Do you know what I mean?  Sometimes things just aren’t fair, and it’s like, no matter how hard we try, we taste that bitter taste of injustice from time to time.

But I want to share a scripture with you today that tells us something important about God’s Word.  God says in His Word that if we will TRUST HIM and give all our injustices, that He will pay us back TWICE OVER for all the wrongs that have been done against us, and all the UNFAIR THINGS in our life that’s happened.  Did you know that?  

Let’s go to Isaiah 61:7:  

Instead of shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your          inheritance.  And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.

Now I want to take a second look at this scripture again, and I want to paraphrase it a little bit.  I want to slow down and give you Debbie’s version.  I want to give you Debbie’s version!  Because you know, this is one of my favorite scriptures, could be my all-time favorite scripture in the Bible.  And when I read a scripture, sometimes things just jump up at me a little bit.  But I have had a lot of things to forgive in my life, I’ve had a lot of injustice.  Have you had a lot of injustice?  So when I see a scripture like this I want to make sure I understand it, and I want to stand on it so I can get what it is God says I can have.  

So go back to the beginning of the scripture,… 

Instead of shame…. What is shame?  Well, it’s not GUILT.  Guilt is when you feel bad for something that you did, but SHAME — sometimes shames is something that was done to you.  Shame has more to do with WHO YOU ARE than WHAT YOU’VE DONE.  And a lot of times, the things that people have done to us brings shame on our lives.  And of course sometimes we bring shame on ourselves by things that we’ve done, and then we feel shameful after.  But whichever it is, Instead of shame you will receive a double portion — that’s TWICE AS MUCH.  And instead of disgrace, you will rejoice in your inheritance.  What is INHERITANCE?  Now, inheritance is what you would’ve had anyway.  To start with.  What you you wouldhave had before any of this stuff ever happened.  

And so you will inherit a double portion — TWICE AS MUCH — in your land, in your life.  And everlasting joy will be yours.  That means that you can be happy again!  Did you know that?  You can be happy again!  And you know, this kinda says to me, what I read into this is that, whatever God does in my life, I’m gonna be happy with it.  I’m gonna be happy with what He does.  When He brings justice into my life, I’m gonna be happywith what He does.  And I’m gonna have TWICE AS MUCH.  That is something I can stand on.  It means that when God brings justice into my life, I’ll be satisfied.

But there’s a BIG CATCH to this promise. Oh yeah, there’s a big catch to this, and I’m gonna go over that with you today.  If you want to see a DOUBLE PORTION in your life and you want to be happy with what God gives you — repaying you for those things that have happened — then you’re gonna have to do things the way God does it — not the way you do it.  We have to DO THINGS GOD’S WAY, NOT OUR WAY.

And OUR WAY would be to, first of all, I’m gonna tell em what I think, and secondly I’m gonna blast em on social media;  I’m gonna tell everybody what they did to me, and I’m gonna make sure that everybody knows that they’re the bad guy, and then I’m just gonna get em back, someday I’m gonna get em back.  There are actually people who have been living their entire lives waiting to get somebody back.  What a sad way to live!  I hope, ladies, that you never do that.  Because if you’re living for a day of revenge, and you’re living in bitterness and anger, and you just want to get somebody back, or pay somebody back, you’ll never get your double portion.  You can forget about the inheritance in the land and all that — it’s never gonna happen for you, cause God will not honor unforgiveness.  The Word says, God says vengeance is Mine, it’s not ours. 

And you know, this is the thing… you gotta know that God saw everything that ever happened to you, He didn’t forget.  He hasn’t forgotten any of it.  God keeps very good records.  Now that doesn’t mean that He’s mad at the other people.  And you gotta realize that those people are God’s kids too.  And instead of hoping that something bad happens to them, you really should put it in God’s hands and pray that He will bless them, and that they will actually grow a conscience, and then their eyes will be opened, and they can repent of their sin.  Because some day they’re gonna have to answer to God for what they did to you.  Yes, they will.  

So, looking at that, I just want to go over a few things that we can do — FOUR THINGS actually — that will help you to make sure you stay in line with THE WAY GOD DOES THINGS so that you can stand on this scripture, you can actually write this scripture down, post it up somewhere, quote it several times, pray it, and claim it for your own.

#1.  KEEP EXTENDING FORGIVENESS.  Keep extending forgiveness.  In my own personal life, I can tell you, I have to forgive people over and over.  Do you know what I mean?  Sometimes I just going through the day, and something will happen, it will remind me of something that happened years ago, and all of a sudden it’ll like — grab me around the throat — and I’m mad all over again.  And I have to stop myself and say no, no no no, I’m not going back there, I’m not gonna do it, I forgive those people, I forgive them, and I’m just gonna let it go.  So keep extending forgiveness.  Forgiveness doesn’t have to be just a one time thing.  But you need to say it aloud.  And you need to pray and actually pray and tell God, say it out loud, “Father, I forgive this person.”  Say their name… “for everything they ever did to me”.  You know, the other person may be aware, and they may not be aware of what they did.  Chances are they’re aware.  But you just have to keep extending that forgiveness.  

#2.  KEEP RESPONDING IN LOVE.  Now, this may sound a little tough.  How can I love these people, I don’t even like them.  You can love people you don’t like.  Yeah, you actually can.  As a matter of fact, the Bible commands us to love others.  Jesus said you have to love other people — not just the ones that are nice to us.  (Matthew 5:44)  So you have to love others, and you do that the same way you forgive them.  You know, you don’t have to really feel it.  You don’t have to feel the ushy-gushy feelings of Valentines Day.  You don’t even have to feel good about forgiveness.  God understands pain.  He knows that we’re not robots.  He knows that we feel pain that is associated with certain memories.  And there’s really nothing wrong with that as long as you don’t sit around and think about it and stew on it and dwell on it.  When you don’t do those things, that’s called LETTING IT GO.  So you have to try to let it go.  But that doesn’t mean it won’t try to come back from time to time.  But when that happens, pray “Father, I forgive them, and I declare to you that I love this person.  I’m gonna love them through Jesus.  I’m gonna love them through the love of Jesus.  I don’t have to like them.  I’m going to love this person, and I’m going to love them through You, because I don’t feel like it, and I don’t want to love them, but I choose to do so.”  And love is a choice.

#3.  KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE SITUATION.  Don’t be trying to get revenge.  Now sometimes there are legal procedures going on, and that’s a different thing.  You need to comply with the authorities.  If someone has done something illegal and they’re having charges pressed against them, I’m not saying you shouldn’t testify in court.  That is a legal procedure, has nothing to do with what I’m talking about today.  But as far as just getting somebody back personally, or trying to harm them or damage their reputation, no no no no.  Just let that go.  

#4.  PRAY.  You can pray on two fronts:  One, pray for the other person.  Yes!  The Bible says to pray for those who have used you, who have hurt you.  And this is what I would pray:  I would pray the prayer in Ephesians Chapter three (Ephesians 3:17-18) that says, Father, I pray that you would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you — that’s pretty stout… the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you, that the eyes of their understanding will be enlightened, that they will know what is the hope of your calling and what is the riches of the glory of your inheritance in the saints.  And what that means is, that if you pray that for them, chances are they’ll get their life right with God.  And really and truly, that’s what you should hope.  Really and truly, you should not want bad things to happen to this person.  You should be wanting them to get their life right with God, because then their eyes will be open, they’ll realize what they did to you.  

A couple of years ago someone who had done me a great deal of harm, over a period of years, called me and said, “I realize I’m gonna have to live with what I did for the rest of my life.”  Well…what could I say, you know?  It’s true, he’s going to.  But I didn’t laugh.  I didn’t rub it in.  I wasn’t even happy about it.  I accepted that.  If it was an apology, I accept it as an apology.  I didn’t have any kind of hoop-la celebration about it.  I didn’t get any kind of a charge out of that.  Because I really want the best for this person.  

The other person to pray for is yourself.  That God will strengthen you, that you will be able to forgive, that you’ll be able to love people the way that Jesus loves them.  That you’ll be able to let go of all the pain and all the bad stuff that’s ever happened.  And that God will bring justice into your life.

And you can do this, ladies.  Listen, if I can do it, you can do it!  I am seeing many things in my life come to pass now, because I feel like I handled things God’s way.  You can do this.  And I promise you, if you ever read my testimony — I’ll post it in Girl Church one day — you’ll know what I’m talking about.  

So I just want to encourage you.  The greater the challenge you have with this, the greater the reward.  Did you know that this could actually be a TEST.  It could be a test!  Chances are, what you’re going through and how you handle this is a test of your faith, or a test of obedience.  I promise you, God is watching you.  He’s watching you to see how you’re gonna handle this.  Is she gonna do this My way?  Is she gonna walk in faith?  You know what, it’s easy to be a faith girl and a Christian when times are easy.  But when it’s TOUGH — when the going gets tough, that’s when it matters.  So make it matter!  Take these four things that I’ve given you today, and believe that WHEN YOU DO IT, God is gonna settle your case.

Thank you for joining me today.  I look forward to seeing you next time!