Starting Your Best Life Now: A Guide for New Adventures and Stages on Your Journey Read Online Free PDF Page A

past resentments, and they affect their personality, their relationships, and their self-image.
    When Jesus saw the man lying there, He asked a simple, straightforward question: “Do you want to be made well?” The man’s response was interesting. He began listing all of his excuses. “I’m all alone. I don’t have anyone to help me.” Is it any wonder that he had not been healed?
    Jesus looked at him and said, in effect, “If you are serious about getting well, get up off the ground, take up your bed, and be on your way.” When the man did what Jesus told him to do, he was miraculously healed!
    IS JESUS ASKING YOU THE SAME QUESTION?
    If you’re serious about being well, you can’t lie around feeling sorry for yourself. Don’t waste another minute trying to figure out why certain evil things have happened to you or your loved ones. You may never know the answer. But don’t use that as an excuse to wallow in self-pity. Leave it alone, get up, and move on with your life. Trust God and accept the fact that there will be some unanswered questions. Just because you don’t know the answer doesn’t mean that one does not exist.
    Each of us should have what I call an “I Don’t Understand It” file. When something comes up for which you have no reasonable answer, instead of dwelling on the “why,” simply place it in this file and don’t become bitter. Trust God, get up, walk out of any emotional bondage in which you have been living, and step into the great future He has for you.
    Quiet your heart and receive God’s Word: “Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 NASB ).
    If you will stay in an attitude of faith and victory, God has promised that He will turn those emotional wounds around. He’ll use them to your advantage, and you will come out better than you would have had they not happened to you.
    W HEN YOU GO THROUGH SITUATIONS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, DON’T BECOME BITTER.

Forgiveness is a choice, but it is not an option.
    FORGIVE TO BE FREE
    The former middleweight boxing champion James “Lights Out” Toney was known to fight like a man possessed. One day, a reporter asked him why he fought with such tremendous aggression and passion. Toney replied, “It’s because my dad abandoned me and my brothers and sisters when I was child, to be raised by my mother all by herself. And now I picture my dad’s face on my opponent’s. And I have so much hatred toward him, I just explode.”
    Toney let a root of bitterness get a deep hold of him, and it was poisoning his life. He was having success on the outside, but the bitterness spoiled every victory.
    ARE YOU GETTING TO THE ROOTS?
    Many people attempt to bury the hurt and pain in their hearts or their subconscious minds. They don’t realize that their bad attitudes and behaviors flow from a poisoned heart. The Bible says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23 KJV ).
    If you want to live your best life now, you must be quick to forgive. You need to forgive so you can be free and happy. When we forgive, we’re not doing it just for the other person, we’re doing it for our own good. When we hold on to unforgiveness and live with grudges, we are simply shutting other people out of our lives. We become isolated, alone, warped, and imprisoned by our own bitterness.
    Do you realize that those walls also prevent God’s blessings from pouring into your life? Those walls can stop the flow of God’s favor and keep your prayers from being answered. They’ll keep your dreams from coming to pass. You must forgive the people who hurt you so you can get out of prison. Get that bitterness out of your life. That’s the only way you’re going to truly be free.
    Quiet your heart and receive God’s Word: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also