ALONE BUT NOT FORSAKEN

Recently I was cleaning out some files and I ran across the following word that the Lord gave to me in 1993.  Twenty years later is just as fresh and relevant as it was back then.

"My daughter, there will be times when you will walk in  dry and desert like places.  You will wonder, "Where did I go? Am I still with you?  Have I forsaken you?   You will miss Me and feel frightened because you  don't hear My voice. You will feel lonely, desperate, abandoned and rejected. I am sharing this now to prepare your heart for the days ahead.  In moments like these you will be able to identify with My sufferings.  I was rejected, lonely, forsaken and abandoned. But now, I am Your High Priest and I feel your infirmities.  There is no one in the whole world who loves you like I do. Look only to the cross and experience my death as yours.  All your pain and sorrow I have consumed into Myself at the cross. I have taken it.  Rejoice, my daughter, I am working out your salvation. You belong to me and I will protect you from evil."

A few days later, darkness did cover my soul.   I began to struggle with  unforgiveness. A close friend totally misunderstood me and started spreading a lie about me in the church.  It hurt.  I felt betrayed, abandoned, alone, and most of all rejected.  The lie spread and I could not stop it. I confronted my friend and tried to talk with her to no avail. 

Then I remembered the word of the Lord  a few days before.  He told me that that  I was going to experience the way of the cross.  I would be misunderstood, rejected and betrayed just like Jesus.  Why should I be surprised. But, I was. I had to ask myself,  how did Jesus handle unfair accusations and misunderstandings?


The answer was simply and uncomplicated--forgiveness. It was only a matter of forgiving my friend like Jesus forgave me-- "I forgive you. Dorothy, for you do not know what you did to me. It hurt, but I chose to forgive you." For the first time I understood a 'pinch of an inch' of the sufferings that Christ endured for my forgiveness. 

By the Grace of the Holy spirit, I was able to extend God's forgiveness to my friend as my own. I chose to believe, that if she knew how much she hurt me, she would not have told that lie.  The result was amazing.  Shortly after my forgiving her, she came to me with an apology.  The Lord's ways are so marvelous and too wonderful for comprehension.

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