Creflo Dollar - Healing From A Broken Heart
Well, if you have your Bibles this morning, we've been talking about deliverance from brokenness and, hopefully, you've understood how important it is for you to address this issue. I know a lot of times people say, "Well, I'm not broken. I don't need to hear this". And I'm telling you right now that there's one thing that you will not be able to escape in this life and I'm gonna tell you right now, no one makes it through life avoiding brokenness. And, you know, we're not talking about, you know, just having those really rough times but Jesus died for the broken.
And so, before I read our first Scripture I wanna look at some of the definitions that we have used to define brokenness and we'll talk about how to get healed from it today and spend our time on that. So we started off defining true brokenness as a tool by which God brings his wandering sheep back into his loving arms. And that brokenness is having been fractured or damaged or no longer in one piece or it literally means, you know, fractured or broken or not in working order. We also looked at brokenness as flawed condition of humanity, not just particular people but a flawed condition of humanity that creates a tendency or a propensity for people to hurt themselves and then at the same time hurt other people.
And I made a statement that you will not be able to make progress above the level of your unresolved brokenness. You can't allow the brokenness that happened when you were 8 continue to live in your life today when you're 40. So that's so very important. We also defined the brokenness as the fundamental disorder that exists in creations that affects a person's relationship and it affects a person's behavior. In other words, we talked about brokenness as being a fundamental disorder that came as a result of the disorder that Satan caused in the Garden of Eden.
And, you know, you may be healed of brokenness right now, you may not be going through it, but sometime in your life you've had to deal with that and there may be some times in the future you're having to deal with that. I mean, dealing with this coronavirus is one of those areas that a lot of people have suffered fracture and things have happened as a result of this, emotionally, some of 'em, and physically. Some people have passed on. But now it's time to talk about how do we get healed from that. It's time to talk about healing from a broken heart, healing from that fracture.
And so we're gonna look at that today and I wanna start off because I left off last week talking about how God will use relationships to help restore you in this area. But I wanna look at Psalm 71, verse 20, in the New Living Translation, because I wanna pick up with that as we move into healing from brokenness. But God can heal relationships and can use relationships to help us to heal from that because God can work through people to help you. It's not a good idea for you to decide not to have anything to do with anybody and just think that you're just gonna, you know, get healed on your own. But I wanna show you that just because you've experienced some bad relationships, it doesn't mean that God can't use relationships to benefit you.
Look at what he says here in Psalm 71, verse 20. He says, "You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and you will lift me up from the depths of the earth". I mean, that's encouraging, that he's allowed you to suffer much hardship but he will restore you again. And I wanna encourage you with that. God is in the business of restoration and that, no matter where you are and what's happened, the hardships that you've gone through, the pit that you've fallen in, the promise is that God will restore you and he will lift you up again. And so, he will use relationships to do that. He will use relationships to restore you. He will use relationships to lift you up again.
And so God has created us in his image for relationships. And much of the healing offered by God is only possible in and through a community of believers. Now, there's no such thing as a being who will decide to himself that I'm just gonna do this by myself. There's just no such thing as being a vibrant, growing, lone ranger Christian. As believers, we need to ask God to help us to be vulnerable and to join with other believers on this journey towards wholeness.
So God's Spirit dwells in the heart of every believer. And a significant part of his ministry is done in and through each one of us in the context of community, in the context of church, in the context of the called out ones. And though most of our emotional problems are either rooted or affected by personal relationships, healing from emotional pain is also most effective when it is done in the context of an interpersonal relationship. So God will use relationships. He will do a significant work through somebody else to help you to be delivered and to be healed from any brokenness or fracture in your life. Now, as relational beings made in God's image, we grow best in relationship with others.
Now, listen to this now. Relationships are the context in which spiritual growth and change takes place. Relationships, it's the context by which spiritual growth and change takes place. That's why it wasn't good for Adam to be alone. See, as long as you're by yourself and there's nobody there speaking into your life or nobody there that you can trust to give you an honest view of what's going on in your life, it's gonna be hard for you to grow because everything's gonna be about you. You'll be self-centered, you're in the center of the circle the whole time. But relationships are used by God and relationships are the context in which spiritual growth can take place and change can take place.
So through true wholeness is found in Christ, even though we know that true wholeness is found in Christ, I mean, wholeness is something that's already been made available and true wholeness can only be found in Jesus Christ. That is true, but God uses human care and ministry to assist us on our journey. God uses people. God uses relationships to assist us in our journey of healing. God speaks to us through his Word, yes. God speaks to us and deals with us through prayer, yes. God speaks and deals with us through worship, and God also speaks and deals with us through other believers.
So get a hold of that. Don't have it set in your mind that I'm a island all to myself and I can just do it by myself. God can bless you through relationships. Even though you had a bad one, even though maybe your fracture came from a bad relationships, God can use the community of the called out ones and he can use the church and believers in fellowship to help you in this journey of your healing. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about healing from a broken heart.
Now, I want you to listen to this very carefully. Although we were created for relationships, one result of the Fall is that we function in broken ways in relationships. And that's principally because our focus is on ourselves and it's on our needs, rather than on others and on their needs. On ourselves and on our needs, rather than on others and on their needs. Look at Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 through 4. Philippians 2, verses 3 through 4, and I'm gonna look at this out of the King James and the New Living Translation. So what do we need to do? What does the Bible have to say about this, about us not being so focused on our needs and what's going on in our lives?
He said this in the King James: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves". Verse 4: "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others", wow. See, when we are wounded in relationships through abandonment or death or divorce or betrayal or abuse, those wounds can run deep and yet, at the same time, we're tempted to just focus on us. Look at this in the New Living Translation, the same Scripture, Philippians 2:3 through 4: "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others", wow. "Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves". Verse 4: "Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too".
Like I said last week, I think it's the boomerang effect. I think when we begin to focus in on somebody else's hurt, that's when healing shows up in our own life. When we begin to focus in on what's going on in somebody else's situation, that's when God can deal with our situation. And so, pain can be described as an unusual gift. Think of that. Pain can be described as an unusual gift because pain demands the attention that is crucial to my recovery. Sometimes, people have pain in their physical body.
When they pay attention to it, then it moves them to go and check it out, it's an unusual gift. And like physical pain, emotional pain awakens our senses and when we ignore the pain or we seek relief from the pain and we try to get it through alcohol and we try to get it through drugs and food, we try to get that relief through work, we try to get it through new relationships, what's happening is we're only gonna be helped for a time. You know, it seems like maybe those things can kind of dull things and dull the emotions for a time, but you're not really being healed of it. You're not really being free from it.
Look at Psalms 147 and verse 3. You're not being healed or freed from it, this unusual gift called pain, wow. And we wanna get healed from it. We don't wanna just cover it up through those addictive behaviors. Look at verse 3. He says, "He healeth the broken in heart, and he bindeth up their wounds". So that's the Word of the Lord that you can be healed of a broken heart. You can be healed of the wound that's in your life. No matter when it occurred or what, you know, what stage of your life that it occurred. The promise from God is, "I'll heal you from your broken heart". The promise from God is, "I'll bind up your wounds".
Now, in order to experience genuine healing, you and I, we must face our pain directly and, in so doing, we're taking an active step in beginning the healing process when we decide, "I'm gonna face my pain directly". You know, so many Christians, I don't know, we cannot live our lives kind of acting like stuff's not there. We cannot live our life, you know, pretending, you know, that, you know, I don't have any wounds and pretending, you know, that I don't have any fracture in my life, I don't have any pain that I'm dealing with in my life. We gotta face it. We gotta face it, we gotta begin to look at it. I think that's gonna be the start of a healing process. So we begin the process by examining those wounds. Instead of pretending that some things don't really hurt, we need to examine them. We need to look directly at the pain and admit how much it does hurt.
Now, I know that sounds contrary to faith but you gotta locate yourself first because whether we acknowledge our pain or not, old wounds have a way of resurfacing in our lives. And so this is what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how to be healed from these wounds, how to be healed from this brokenness so it's not reoccurring in your life over and over again. So I wanna share with you four steps in this healing process of a wounded heart. What are these four things that I'll identify to you today and what you need to begin to start doing where dealing with your wounded heart? Well, the first one is, you know, when we have been wounded in relationships, when we've been wounded in loss, when we've been wounded in rejection, when we've been wounded in abuse.
See, I want you to know that, you know, for those who say, "Well, I don't have any wounds or anything", I mean, surely you've lost someone or someone's passed or surely there's been a time where you've been rejected and you wanna pretend like it really didn't affect you at all or maybe there are some times where you've been abused. I think the first step towards healing is acknowledging the wound. It's not only acknowledging the wound, it's being willing to examine the wound. To acknowledge the wound, I think, is the first step. You gotta locate yourself. Even when we used to teach on the born again process, the first step was to admit that you were a sinner.
You know, "well, I wanna ask Jesus to come in my life". Well, do you know where you are right now? Do you know what's going on in your life right now? Can you come to the place of admitting that I am a sinner and I am in need of Jesus Christ? Well, it's similar here. Coming to a place where you acknowledge the wound. Coming to a place where you can say, "Yeah, I'm hurt. I feel rejected. I've always felt rejected, I"... There's something about coming to that place and acknowledging those things first. True healing requires that we examine the wound. We need to fully understand why we hurt. True healing requires that we allow others to share our pain and walk us through it and it's here where we can begin to clean out the wound.
Look at what the Scripture says in Galatians chapter 6. I'm gonna read it in the NLT. Galatians 6, verses 1 through 3. I think as you begin to not only you acknowledge the wound but, you know, using these relationships, these healthy good relationships, to begin to help clean it out, look at what the Scripture says here. I just had a second thought when I looked at this. In the New Living Translation, he says, "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back on the right path". Verse 2: "And be careful not to fall into the same temptation", test or trial, "yourself. Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ", which is love. "If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important", wow.
You are not that important where you think you're too important to help somebody else. You see, none of us, as believers, are so independently sufficient in and of ourselves spiritually that we are beyond the need of others in our lives. And that's just the way God designed us. We are dependent creatures. And, you know, dependent to maintain otherwise and for us to go around otherwise and to stubbornly walk through life alone is just not advised. And there are just too many people that are doing that. They try to walk through life alone and, you know, this is gonna bring up a point where I'm gonna have to teach on how to develop healthy relationships because relationships, it's God's will and you've got to make sure that you don't substitute good healthy relationships and ignore the fact that we are relational beings and, you know, just kind of become this loner and become a hermit and that's just not the will of God for your life.
Now, let's look at the second step here in this process of healing a broken heart. So the first step here is got to acknowledge the wound. You've got to examine the wound, you've got to, you know, get with other people and people that you have good relationship with, somebody. If you can't even find that person, then get a therapist or somebody, somebody that can help you examine this wound and walk you out of that situation.
Now, number two, now in order to heal from relational wounds of the past, we need to identify and let go of those relational patterns we fall into that reopen old wounds even in current relationships. So the second process here is I need to identify and I need to let go of those relational patterns that we fall into, those relational patterns that seem to bring us back and reopen some of those old wounds in those relationships. You have to begin to look at what am I doing in every relationship that allows me to always end up in the same spot? What's going on in this relationship, the same thing that went on in the last relationship, the same thing that's gonna, and it reopens the same wound. You've got to identify those things because a safe and trusting relationship is the best place to explore those relational patterns.
And then, like I said before, to have a relationship, even if it's a counselor or a trusted friend, you need someone who will be honest with you. I said you need someone who will be honest with you and can help you get outside yourself to examine objectively the harmful patterns that are replacing themselves and replaying themselves and reoccurring in your life over and over and over again. Who in your life can you trust to tell you, "Dude, you keep doing the same thing over again"? Or "You're replaying the same thing. I remember when you did it, you know, ten years ago. I remember when you did it before you got your divorce. You keep doing the same thing over and over and over again".
See, when you have a supportive and a trusted person in your corner to talk and to pray with, that's very essential. That's very important. Somebody in your life that can confront you. Look at Philippians chapter 3:13. Let's look at it in the New Living Translation. "But that ain't Bible". Look at Philippians 3:13 in New Living Translation. He says this. He says, "No, dear brother and sister, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: I'm forgetting the past and are looking forward to what lies ahead". All right, so you're dealing with somebody, they don't have it all together. They're, you know, they hadn't achieved everything. And what they're doing is they're saying, you know, "I'm gonna forget about some things and I'm gonna focus on what I need to focus on, but I'm gonna go forward and do what I need to do", okay?
And look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse 14 to 15. Let's look at it in the King James and then the New Living Translation. The King James and then the New Living Translation. We're gonna need support from people, we're gonna need to let some things go. Look what he says in verse 13, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 14 and 15. Ephesians 4:14-15. He says, "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive". You know what verse 14 is saying? Stop being gullible. Verse 14 is saying, "Stop being gullible. Stop entering into things so quickly without taking the time to examine it and look at it. Stop being so gullible".
And sometimes in relationships, we're so gullible. There are signs at the very beginning of the relationship that this is toxic. There are signs at the very beginning of the relationship that this is not one that you should be involved in. To quit being so gullible. "Don't be like children, tossed to and fro, with every wind of doctrine", but then here's what he says: "But speaking the truth in love". Do you have somebody in your life that can speak the truth in love? Not to speak the truth because they're trying to get back at you or trying to get one up on you but somebody that loves you enough to "speak the truth in love, that you may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ". I mean, who are we to decide, you know, whether or not somebody needs to know the truth.
I think God can use an individual to speak the truth to somebody in love. And I think that can be a turning point in a lot of people's lives when they hear the truth spoken to them in love. It can be amazing thing when somebody tells you the truth and you know they love you but they tell you the truth. We're not doing any good when we see things as Christian brothers and sisters and we fail to speak the truth in love. We don't wanna do that. We don't wanna make that a habit. God wants to use you to help restore somebody and to heal somebody's pain and to heal somebody's wound. And sometimes, speaking the truth in love is just what the doctor ordered, wow.
Look at this real quickly in the New Living Translation. I wanna read verse 14 and 15 again because, I don't know, we've got to be careful not as Christians to say, "Well, that ain't none of my business". I understand what you're coming from but what if God is speaking to your heart? What if you're in this relationship with someone and you're this close to someone for the very reason that God knew that there was gonna come a time that he can use you to speak the truth in love to that person.
Look what he says in NLT. He says, "Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth". Verse 15: "Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, even the church". Speaking the truth in love, growing more, he compares that to Christ, "growing more and more like Christ", when we do that. And so the second process here, where getting your wounds healed is that we've gotta locate those relational patterns that we fall into that reopen those wounds even in current relationships.
Number three, now in order to experience genuine healing and freedom from our painful past, number three, we have to find a way to let go of those dangerous, insidious emotions. We've got to find a way to let go of some of those dangerous emotions that we just hold on to. Depending upon the severity of the situation, the idea of forgiveness may be unacceptable. The idea of saying that you need to forgive somebody that murdered a family member, so dependent on the severity of the situation, it may be unacceptable yet the reality is that the choice not to forgive somebody usually is even more damaging.
So you do have a choice and, you know, just seems like it's just unreasonable to forgive somebody who deserves or who doesn't deserve your forgiveness. And yet, to choose not to do it has already proven to be the more damaging to you. So choosing to forgive does not mean that we forget what happened to us or that we excuse the person who hurt us or that we pretend that the hurt never happened or that we ignore the wound. That's not what we're talking about. Forgiveness is God's way of dealing with sinful behavior, be it our sin or someone else's sin.
You see, when we forgive, let me show you about two or three things when you do this. When we forgive, we hand ourselves over to God, trusting that God alone can restore and heal us fully and completely when we forgive. When we forgive, we are also trusting that God is totally opposed to the evil and he sees it whenever and wherever it occurs and so we agree with God that what happened to us ought not to have happened and yet that I trust God knows how to deal with this better than I do. When we forgive, we also hand the offending person over to God.
Forgiveness is something that's absolutely necessary. I'll probably say it again before I finish here. It's absolutely necessary in order to see restoration and healing of wounds and broken hearts. Forgiveness allows us to look at ourselves honestly as broken children of God who are first and foremost forever forgiven creatures. I cannot forget that I am forever forgiven. I cannot forget that God forgave me. Forgiveness allows us to replace our negative responses with more positive ones. I can now be more positive because I've forgiven.
Forgiveness allows us to let go of the burdens of bitterness and resentment and to lay them at the feet of Jesus who understands and even bears our suffering, he bears our pain, and by me forgiving, I'm demonstrating that, Lord, I can't handle this and so I'm gonna take this stuff and I'm just gonna lay it at your feet and let you deal with it. Forgiveness is essential to this process of healing. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse 31 through 32. Forgiveness is something that has to be done and it requires a supernatural ability to do it and God's already given it to us. He says, "Let all the bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, all the evil speaking, let it be put away from you, with all malice". Let it go. "And be kind one to another, be tenderhearted, forgiving one another". How? "Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you".
In other words, if he can forgive you, he will equip you to be able to forgive others. And a whole lot of this forgiveness needs to be pointed towards self in some cases. In some cases, you haven't forgiven yourself. And until you forgive yourself, it's gonna be real difficult for you to forgive other people. And one of the things we begin to understand that if God has already forgiven me, then I might as well go ahead and forgive myself. I'm just wasting my time holding things against me when God's already forgiven me.
And then once you begin to receive forgiveness for yourself, then you begin to receive forgiveness for other people and you put away bitterness and you put away evil speaking and you put away all of the stuff you've been holding all of this time and it's not done anything but kept you back. I mean, holding on to something that somebody did to you, somebody said to you, way somebody treated you. Until you lay that at the feet of Jesus, all it's gonna do is hold you back and keep you from the next level and the next step that God has planned for your life. Keep you from the thing that you were called to do. Keep you from the thing that God has allowed you to be born on the earth to do because you just can't let it go.
And I'm telling you, it is essential to the healing process. It is very, very important. Don't wait until you're 60 before you decide to let things go. Remember what I say, and right now I'm saying it a lot lately. If it costs you your peace, it's too expensive. And walking in unforgiveness, it cost. It costs you your peace. Forgiveness requires us to admit that a wrong was done to us, and it's okay to admit that, but it's also okay to recognize that I can take that and give it to God and he can begin to correct it and do what needs to be done.
So by constantly blaming ourselves for wounds that were inflicted by others and that's what happens sometimes, we blame ourselves for the wounds that were inflicted by other people. What are we doing? We're keeping ourselves from finding real freedom 'cause at the end of the day, you start blaming yourself, "Well, it's... I did it. I did it". I'm sure you might have had a part to play in that but, you know, blaming yourself all the time, that's not gonna help you to heal.
You see, sometimes in the process of trying to manage our own pain, we end up wounding other people. And when we try to manage our own pain and manage our own wounds, we end up hurting other people. And not only do we blame ourselves for our own wounds and hurts but many of us also feel resentful and angry towards God. You see how the process goes? You begin to get to a point where you're so angry at God and now it's his fault and you're mad at the only one that can help you. You're upset at the only one that can bring you out of your situation.
So we've got to let go of those emotions that have kept us trapped. We've gotta let go of it. We've gotta forgive. We have got to forgive ourselves, we've gotta forgive others, we've gotta forgive God. And I'm not saying it's gonna be a piece of cake, but what I am saying is if you'll do this you remove the debris out of the pathway that brings you to the place where God wants you to be in your life. And there's the fourth step in this process of wound healing. The key to genuine healing from past relational wounds is to find the courage to really love again. To find the courage to really love again. In this step, not only are you gonna find the courage to love again, which is a risk, but to find the courage to take risk.
To find the courage to make mistakes. To find the courage to be vulnerable. And to do all of that with other people. It's gonna take courage. Courage to be vulnerable with other people, courage to be vulnerable with yourself, courage to be vulnerable with your God. You gotta figure out how to love again. You gotta figure out how to live again. You gotta figure out how to take risk. You gotta figure out, you know, how to make mistakes. Gotta stop beating yourself up and you have to make that decision, "I'm not gonna be afraid to love again. I'm not gonna be afraid to trust again. I'm not gonna be afraid to take risk". I mean, if you're sitting in the house all day because you're afraid of all the risks that are going on, we've gotta make some decisions, man. We've gotta make some decisions.
Now, I'm not talking about, you know, doing something stupid and say, "Well, Pastor said take a risk so I'm gonna step off the building and see if I can fall and die". I ain't talking about that. You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about in these relationships where relational hurt and wounds have come that you're saying, "I trust my God and that there is somebody out there". "Well, there ain't nobody out there". Yeah, there is somebody out there. There are people that are available, there are people that will be sent to you by God.
Somehow, someway, you might need to clean up your own expectations of, you know, the type of people that you wanna be around and you're pushing away the ones that can end up to be your greatest blessing because they don't wear the tight clothes you wear or all that kind of stuff or maybe they're not the same color you are. You've gotta be careful not to push away God-sent people, people that God sends into your life to be a blessing to your life, amen? So now I wanna review this. Some of this stuff you'll see in this I wanna go over that, you know, just put it together real simple in a little summary form, just in case I forgot anything. The 12 ways of this brokenness to be healed. Let me give 'em to you in a short version.
Number one, admit your brokenness. That's true. Nothing starts. Healing doesn't start until you can admit it. Admit your brokenness.
Number two, let go of anything holding you back. Let go of anything or anyone holding you back. What's holding you back today? Who's holding you back today? Are you in relationship with people that call you stupid all the time? Are you in relationship with people that you constantly have to dumb yourself down in order to have a relationship with 'em? Are you in a relationship where you're always giving to people? Let go of anything that's holding you back or anyone.
Number three, turn your failure into triumph. You make your mind up: "I'm gonna turn my failure into triumph". You know, some of you are still under stay-at-home orders, you know, don't get up every day complaining about stay-at-home orders. Take advantage of the time, make yourself better, start a class on the Internet or something. Come up with a business structure for a new idea, a new way of doing things. Spend a lot more time praying with God, time meditating in the Spirit, time building yourself up. Turn your failures into triumph.
Number four, even if you continue to fail, stay positive. Now, I don't think you will, but even if you continue to fail, stay positive. You've got to understand Satan will use failure to try to mess with you up here, to try to bring a negative connotation, a negative feeling in your mind and, "Oh, my God", you know, it's kind of like that, I forgot the dude, the little cartoon, "Oh no", you know, "it'll never be right". You've gotta get rid of that attitude, that even in the midst of your attempt to try to do things right, they may not be working at the time, but still stay positive. Or maybe you did something and then it wasn't accepted. You know, just stay positive, praise God, because people will, I mean, these things will grow you from one level to the next level and you'll be ready when that time comes.
Number five, do not apologize for going forward towards holiness. You don't owe anybody apology. I'm going forward. I am going to achieve holiness. I realize that the true source of my holiness is Jesus Christ and I'm not gonna apologize to anybody for being born again. I'm not gonna apologize for anybody to spending more time in prayer. I'm not gonna apologize to anybody for, you know, going to church more and then, I'm not going to apologize for me going towards holiness in my life. And I know that sounds strange but some people will persecute you when they see you trying to do better.
Number six, spend time with yourself and God. There's something that happens in that time you spend. God can shine a light. You can see things about you that you probably would have never seen before. God'll talk to you about you, and spending time with him, spending time under his light and allowing him to show you things, it brings you to another level.
Number seven, you don't have to worry about, you know, "Oh, but I don't have people to hang out with. Oh, I don't have folks that, you know, that I vibe with", because I believe your vibe will bring you to your tribe. And you don't have to worry about that. You know, if you like art and you're that way and you get all stirred up with art and painting and stuff, there's somebody else just like you somewhere. There's somebody else that appreciates things just like you appreciate. Somebody says, "Well, how do you find them"? You start off, "God, bring these people into my life. Show me my tribe". You know, you don't have to just resolve that you're gonna be by yourself, "Well, I'm weird and I'm a introvert and nobody understands me". Don't play that with yourself. You were created relational just like God and he has those relationships ready and prepared for you. You know, we use our faith to get healed. We use our faith to get a promotion. We use your faith for relationships and for the right people to come around you and to be around you.
Number eight, learn how and ask God to help you to love unconditionally. Learn what it means to love unconditionally. There are too many Christian people, we have been trained to love conditionally. "I love you when these things are in the right place. I love you when you're acting like this. I love you when things are going this way". But loving unconditionally means I'm gonna love you and if you do stupid stuff, I'm still gonna be there. I'm gonna love you if you get your butt put in jail. I am there 'cause I love unconditionally. Man, we don't know how to do that. We don't know how to love when it's hard.
And, of course, God will add wisdom to all of that but you've got to know what I'm talking about. You know, love is a gift and to love somebody unconditionally is a gift and that love was probably gonna be something that you begin to grow into. We just beat too much of our own people up and throw 'em away when they need love.
It's just something that happens when you can love somebody that everybody else has decided not to love because brokenness, like I said before, people are really, they throw away what's broken. They reject what's broken. When something has a fracture, they don't wanna have anything to do with it. And I think God has given us the ministry of reconciliation and we've got to learn how to love unconditional. Lord, teach me and I'm praying this prayer for myself. My love needs to grow more in unconditional love. My love needs to grow more in unconditional love to love what's not lovely, to love what's ugly, to love someone's brokenness or someone's past or even someone's lifestyle that I might not understand. My love has got to get to the point where I can love unconditionally.