"You have heard that it was said,
'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
But I say to you, love your enemies,
bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you...
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?"
Matthew 5:43-46
So here is the Lord asking what seems the impossible. Don't think he doesn't know how deeply our hurts can damage us, how we can so be traumatized by them, how we can be overcome by them. He knows. But the Lord does NOT ask the impossible from us. So what is he looking for in us?
First, that you see your true condition, your anger, your bitterness, your desire for revenge, all of which are natural responses as we live in a fallen human nature in a fallen world. They are natural, but they are sin. He desires that you truly acknowledge your sinfulness and your inability to do what he says to do. And this is crucial. He isn't waiting for us to be able to do as he said, he is waiting for us to acknowledge that we can't do it ...and then to ask for his motivating grace which is the only thing that makes us able.
You CANNOT do it in your strength, only with his enabling can you satisfy the requirement.
"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
Hebrews 4:16
Jesus said that one who does not forgive is turned over to "the torturers" (Matthew 18:34-35). I was praying one day for someone who is almost always bitter. As I was praying, the word "torturers" came into my mind. Torturers? I was sure it couldn't be the Lord because I had never seen that word in the Scriptures. But before dismissing it, I looked it up in case it was there. It was. When I first saw this I was shocked. The torturers? Yes. If there has been a pattern of great suffering in your life, it could be due to unforgiveness. If unforgiveness results in being handed over to the torturers, obviously the only way out is through forgiving "from the heart" and yes, that is humanly impossible.
Those who know from the Word of God that we are required to forgive, will say "I do forgive" in order to satisfy the requirement, but most of the time we are not forgiving "from the heart" so we are not satisfying the requirement. How then? It will require spending time before the Lord, seeking his enabling to do what you cannot do on your own.
Don't cry that "it's not fair." Friends, when we become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ we give up all "rights." HE takes over, HE is Lord over our lives. But God WILL settle things. Perhaps not now, we'll have to wait for it, but he WILL.
"...it is a righteous thing with God
to repay with tribulation those who trouble you..."
2nd Thessalonians 1:6
In the meantime, leave it with him and seek to cleanse your heart from bitterness. Bitterness is poison. It's torture.
Friends, we have been forgiven SO MUCH. Let us therefore forgive from the heart all who have hurt us. Release them into the Father's hands. He can better deal with them than your bitterness can. And he will! Let it go, leave it to him.
Consider the reasons the hateful person became the way he/she is. What brought them to be so miserable? They live in a fallen human nature just as we do and as such the stories of their lives have molded them to be what they are, and to hurt others in the process. Let them go - relinquish them into their miserable lives, forgiving the fallenness in them just as we need to be forgiven the fallenness in ourselves.
No, he doesn't ask the impossible, because IN HIM all things are possible. Take the TIME to spend before the Lord confessing your inability to forgive, and ASK for the ability that only he can give. In the natural it is totally impossible because we are victims of our heavy emotions. But in the Lord nothing is impossible. Go to the Throne of Grace and pray to be enabled to truly let them go, and pray it until you are empowered to relinquish them. In the process, you too will be set free.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Philippians 4:13
"I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in me, and I in him,
bears much fruit;
FOR WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING."
John 15:5
"The child will be insolent toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable.” Isaiah 3:5 How accurately the Word of God describes "the last days." Anyone who is old enough to remember how things were before this young generation coming up, will immediately be able to relate to this. When we were children, we were REQUIRED to have respect toward our parents and teachers. And it wasn't baseless - any act of disobedience was swiftly met with punishment. Children did what they were told and that created peace in society - and happy children. The word "insolence" is such an apt description of society today. In former times the prevailing mindset counseled parents to discipline their children but as time went on, society decided that physical discipline was "child abuse," and "teaching children violence." But most of us who lived in earlier times will attest that the very opposite is true. Those who received physical discipline did NOT learn violence, but learned respect for their elders. Friends, the Word of God is not wrong. It is the Lord who in several places in his Word taught that if one withholds discipline from his child, he is withholding from his child the remedy for disobedience and disrespect. That will create a spoiled child who has no respect for his parents or elders. The child becomes "insolent." "He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him PROMPTLY." Proverbs 13:24 When a child does not learn respect and obedience at a very young age, his attitude will be set for the rest of his life, and the child is spoiled in the truest sense of the word. One reading this might argue that there is a real danger of child abuse if physical discipline is accepted by society. But the argument doesn't hold water. There are always going to be tyrants and drunks who will abuse children. That is not a reason to change the Word of God. In fact, those who do abuse children are usually those who did NOT receive adequate nourishment and discipline in their growing years. They were denied a correct upbringing, and that created wrong behavior. There is a reason the Lord created us with adequate padding on the backside, ensuring that discipline will not really hurt the child. Correct discipline is to be applied from the love of the parent, and the parent's wanting the best for the child. The parent conveys to the child, "I love you too much to allow you to behave this way." Done correctly, the child will actually thrive. We live in a time when the majority rejects the Word of God, counting it foolishness. "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
1st Corinthians 2:14
The world took God out of schools and to a great extent God was removed from homes. What we see in society is a direct result of that. We've never witnessed such evil as what we are witnessing today.
It all comes down to your choice. As with all the directives in the Scriptures, you can choose to listen to the Word of God, or you can listen to the "experts" of today who tell you why the Word of God is not true.
This generation has for the most part chosen to reject the Word of God - and all one has to do is to look at the results to determine the effect that has had on society today.
"A righteous man who falters before the wicked
is like a murky spring and a polluted well."
Proverbs 25:26
When a believer is out among the wicked, he must not forget whom he represents. Unbelievers watch him, hoping he will do wrong so that they might mock him and his walk with the Lord. How often have we heard someone say with scorn, "and he's SUPPOSED to be a Christian!" They delight in seeing a believer stumble.
Believers are called to drink from the living waters found only in Christ. Only if the believer abides in Christ will he have these rivers of living water flowing from within. Neglect will result in polluted waters. Clean, healthy, living water comes only from the source God has provided.
"'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'”
John 7:37-38
This does not happen automatically. To maintain the stream, the believer has to be drinking, or else the stream will dry up and when the stream dries up, he will have murky waters and a polluted well. Anyone watching such a one will find that the well is foul and they will turn away, no one wants to draw from a well of polluted water. They will be repulsed by the murky waters and will turn and mock the one whose waters should be clean and flowing with life.
So how does one abide in Christ?
It's all about the Word of God. Just as a person has to eat to maintain life and health of the body, so in like manner he has to nourish his spirit or his spirit will grow faint. Murky. God has shown us that the nourishment for the spirit of man is his Word, the Bible. The Word of God is alive, it gives life to the one abiding in it. Just as when you eat, you don't worry how the nutrients will nourish your body, you just eat - in like manner, when you take in the Word of God, you don't worry about how it's going to nourish you, you just take it in.
"For the word of God is LIVING and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword..."
Hebrews 4:12
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
The Words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."
John 6:63
Come to the waters and drink; abide in the Word of God. Read it daily, slowly, carefully, take it in and let the Word of God nourish you and then out of your heart will flow living water to sustain you so that your life will be vibrant with the Spirit of God and those who are around you will see the Lord in all you do.