The Woman Who Overcame the Unthinkable | Joel Osteen

The Woman Who Overcame the Unthinkable

Goliath was twice David’s size. He was an experienced soldier; he was wearing a full set of armor. David had none of that. He was a shepherd. When he told King Saul that he wanted to face Goliath, Saul said, “Are you kidding? You’re just a boy.” When Goliath saw David, how small he was, he laughed. He said, “Am I a dog that you would come at me with a stick?” All the odds were against David. Logically speaking, he didn’t have a chance. But God will put you in situations where you’re up against a giant. It looks impossible: the sickness is too bad, the problem is too great, the dream is too big. It’s easy to let fear, intimidation, and doubt talk us out of it. This is where you have to remind yourself that you were created to perform awe-inspiring deeds.

1993, Mary Johnson’s only son was at a party 1 night, and things got out of control.
Shots were fired. Her twenty one year old son was killed.
When she heard the news, she was so devastated she passed out.
3 days later, they charged a sixteen year old boy in his killing.
That day, she said, hate filled her heart. She was so angry. She couldn’t sleep at night.
At the trial, she viewed her son’s killer as an animal She not only hated him, she hated everyone.
Mary knew she needed to forgive. She knew the anger was destroying her, but she wouldn’t do it.
She kept putting it all year after year. He didn’t deserve it. She’s not right. He hurt me too badly.
Long as you’re making excuses, comforting what you should be confronting, it’s going to limit your life.
When you hold on to unforgiveness, it’s not hurting the other person. It’s hurting you.
We’ve heard the saying time heals all wounds, That may be true in one sense, but you can’t bury hurts, guilt, insecurity, and think they’re going to just go away.
Those are toxins that will contaminate your life. Mary kept running. She didn’t wanna deal with it.
She didn’t wanna put herself through the pain.
It’s too hard to forgive, but to get free, to be whole, you have to do the hard things.
You have to be willing to be uncomfortable.
What I’ve learned is it’s not going to be as difficult as you think.
When you stop running, when you deal with what you know you need to deal with, there will be a grace to do what you’ve never done.
The reason you think it’s gonna be too hard, you haven’t stepped into that grace yet.
It will come when you make a move.
One day, Mary made the decision that I’m asking us to make.
She said in effect, I’m gonna stop running.
I’m not gonna let this anger, this hatred ruin the rest of my life.
She called the prison and asked if she could visit the young man that took her son’s line.
They were surprised, reluctantly, the young man agreed.
She walked in that day uncomfortable, not knowing what to expect, and They talked for 2 hours.
The young man told how sorry he was.
As she was leaving, he asked if he could give her a hug.
As they embraced, Mary said, I felt anger and hatred rising up from the souls of my feet and leaving my body.
It was like a cleansing. She felt a heavy weight lift off of her.
From that day forward, she’s never had any bitterness, anger, hostility, When you stop running and deal with what you know is hindering you, it’s not going to be as hard as you think.
God is going to give you the grace. He’s going to prepare people’s hearts.
He’s going to help you to forgive. Don’t spend your life running.
What you run from, you’ll always have to go back and deal with before you can move forward.
When we comfort and don’t confront, All we’re doing is putting off where god wants to take us.
We’re delaying seeing new levels of our destiny. Here’s a key.
God will never ask you to do a hard thing and not give you the ability to do it.
When he’s asking you to do something difficult, The grace is there, but you have to step into it.
Your mind will say, you can’t forgive. They hurt you too badly.
You can’t break the addiction, just learn to live with it. You can’t do something great. You’re insecure. You’re unqualified.
Don’t believe those lies.
There’s nothing the enemy would love any more than for you to spend your life running.
Running from god’s call on your life, running from your fears, running from your hurts, running from your past.
It’s time to stop running. The only way out is through. You can’t go around it.
You can’t ignore it, and it’ll go away.
Time will cause it to disappear, but if you’ll confront it, you can conquer it.
If you’ll face your giants god will give you strength to defeat what should defeat you.
When you do what you can, god will do what you can.
When you do the natural, god will do the supernatural.
In your own strength, you may not be able to forgive.
To break the habit, to lead the company, but you’re not on your own.
When you stop running, god steps in and gives you power for or ability that you’ve never had.
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