Daughter, Where are you?

Ever have one of those days where you are walking along in peace and something happens and it seems your joy and peace is snatched away like a wave on the sand? Of course you have. We all have in our human experience. But why? Why do offences and some types of circumstances cause us to temporarily lose our peace or joy or both? I'll answer more clearly but want to give you some insight into what helped me to see more clearly.

I am the type of person that wants to bless others and I try very hard to be a blessing everyday. So what appeared in my perspective to me to be ahead of schedule and accomplishing my goals of the day did not appear to others the same. Someone had a different perspective. This person whom I was intending on blessing ended up feeling annoyed with me and was actually somewhat rude. So my peace is washed out to sea since I felt I failed them....sigh.... So I'm walking along in order to meet up with this other human who needed me to continue to bless them, but I believe they are disappointed in me.

So I ask the Holy Spirit to show me how not to feel offended. He had been working in my heart to help me to understand that we are not to see others in flesh since our Father no longer sees me in the flesh but to see them by my new creation perspective. I'm in Christ and most of the time I am aware of this right-standing with the Father. I've come to realize by the work of the Spirit within that I am seen as holy and perfect since I'm IN CHRIST therefore no more old nature....since it died and was buried IN CHRIST 2000 years ago. But still having some trouble in this common hinderance of feeling offended.

I walk the remaining part of my journey to deliver to this other person what they wanted from me. I felt hurt and angry that rather than being appreciated I was told I was not meeting expectations. All of you at some point have been told this and just admit it: This hurts. It hurts to be told that your human best is substandard. So after I've completed my mission I huff off and go hide so I can cry by myself and of course cry out to my Father who always see me as perfect in the Son.

I'm sitting looking out a large window at a typical gray rainy October morning. The colorful leaves from last week have mostly blown off in the chilly northern wind and the colors that remain are more dull browns and less golds and red that I loved. I turn my gaze to a piece of framed art on the wall. It's ugly. It's a photo of a room that has long since been abandoned. Black and white image with a look of hopelessness. I'm still fighting back the stinging tears when I hear in my spirit, "Where are you? Daughter, where are you?" Wow! I knew just what He meant. It was like a flood of understanding. In that moment, I was still focused on what had happened 20 minutes earlier and He was currently in the present.

Our Father lives in the NOW not the past....He doesn't see my past or the past of the person who offended me. He was not mad or thinking up some way to avenge my hurt feelings from the individual who hurt me. In that instant, my peace was FULL. I was instantly transformed back to the life of abundance that I was living prior to the offence. I UNDERSTOOD and knew now that offences come when we live back in our minds where the offence took place. The Father asked me where I was NOT because he was angry or thinking up some type of punishment or curse to place on me--His daughter and precious one In HIs Son....but rather he just wanted me to re-focus on Him and His love for me.

I looked up again at the bland art work on the wall and saw something new, I had not seen previously. Right near the middle of the image of the black and white photograph was the word PEACE. I knew then that was the intended focal point that the artist had intended for me to see but it was not visible to me until I refocused on being IN CHRIST.

So to answer my first question: Why do offences and some types of circumstances cause us to temporarily lose our peace or joy? It's because we are not where we belong in our spirits.....we've remained at the offence and are focused on that and are stuck until we re-focus and fix our eyes back on the Savior and His finished work. There is no lack. Eve thought she lacked and God asked her "Where are you?" And she hid! I know my Savior well enough now to know I can run to His Throne of Grace and receive all and know that I lack for no good thing in Him.