Nougat 11

In the book ‘Great Expectations’, Dickens presents us with a character, whose name explains it all, she was Ms Havisham. We can see two words in the name – have and sham; suggesting that everything she had was a sham. And Pip’s experience of her reveals that; for though wealthy, she lived in a years-old wedding dress, scarcely able to move past the pain of being jilted. Dickens’s portrayal offers us a very important spiritual and life lesson about facing our past. We are a shell of who we’re called to be off we can’t get past. That’s also the point of Today’s Holy Nougat

“You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Idols of Painful Memories

Dickens might not have intended Ms Havisham as a spiritual lesson, but her failure to move past her past is a demonstration of another kind of idolatry. For when we venerate hurts, nursing them and allowing them to color our judgments, relationships and our spiritual lives.

Often we can’t see beyond the hurt, to the extent that we fry others in the same fat (judge others unfairly) without giving them the benefit of the doubt. No one enjoys being unfairly judged, even when we understand the root cause of such behavior. Siblings, that gets tired very fast, and is guaranteed to isolate us from those who love us.

Moreover, our Nougat reminds us that holding on to misdeeds against us from the past is a guaranteed enticement of sin. That’s the warning God gave directly to Cain when he continued to hold on to his misplaced anger. That’s one level of spiritual danger, and we must guard against it. But when we still can’t let go of the hurt to the extent that it influences our rational decisions and interrupts our capacity to fully worship God, that’s idolatry.

Remember, *no other god but YHWH*, none! Especially when it’s guaranteed to destroy us. And oftentimes, the subject of our anger is unaware. I’m not saying it is easy to surrender the hurt, but venerating it creates a dangerous wedge between us and God. By God’s grace we can let go of the pain and open ourselves to life anew. If there’s some lingering wounds, or established idols that need to be cast down; let’s hand them over to Jesus, and allow Him to heal our hurt hearts.

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May all we seek be found in Christ