Oh how her words stung my heart!  Eventually her words found residence in my heart, and I let them live there for a long time.

As believers, we are all going to have hurtful things said to us, or done to us.  One of the reasons so many give up on the Church, or even on God, is because a fellow believer wounded them.   I wish these things did not happen, but they absolutely do!

For blog purposes, we’ll call her Alice.  Alice was a strong believer, strong prayer warrior and even strong in the prophetic.    Alice did not like something I did as a leader, and as far as she was concerned it was war.   Her attacks on me were ferocious and unrelenting.   I was devastated.  How could a person, with such devotion, do this to a sister in Christ?

Rather than take her words to God, I took them to heart.  They had their own room in my heart for several months.  I would visit that room every day, and finally that room became the living room of my heart.  It became a place where I spent way too much time.   It wasn’t long before my hurt turned to anger, and my anger turned to bitterness.

My husband and I were scheduled to attend a conference on Power and Prayer.    As I packed for the trip, I made sure to take my bitterness with me.  After all, I had been wronged and maligned!   We arrived at the conference, but I’d already made up my mind to play the wounded card.  So much so, that in the group of over five thousand people, I had my husband sit way up in the nose bleed section.  My gift of the Spirit that weekend was going to be sulking!

Where was God?  How could He let her get away with treating me this way?

As I sat high up in the balcony of that church, totally withdrawn from what was happening, a woman came over to me.  She did not introduce herself, and neither did I.  She said to me, “God sent me to give you a word.  He said that you are a wounded pastor’s wife, and to tell you that He has not forgotten you.  He said to trust Him to make it up to you.”

I gave her a perfunctory smile as she walked away, but I was stunned.    Stunned that the God of the universe picked me out of thousands that day. That He saw me in the crowd.  That He cared enough to not clobber me over the head, but to say, “Trust me.  I’ll make it up to you.”

While at that conference, I redecorated the living room of my heart.  I took down the black curtains and let the light shine into the places that had been hidden.   It was a life-changing moment from the lips of God.

Are you wounded?  Have you been hurt?  How is the living room of your heart decorated?

God  had me write this today, to say: He sees you.  He picks you out of the crowd.  He hasn’t forgotten you.  He knows what has happened to you, and if you will walk with Him, He will make it up to you.  He will give you a healed heart, and an abundant life in Him.  He is the God who sees.

Is it time to redecorate the living room of your heart?  The Master Decorator is waiting.

“For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” –  2 Chronicles 16:9a