"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse."
Romans 12:14
vs 19-20
"Beloved, do not avenge yourselves,
but rather give place to wrath, for it is written,
'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord.'
Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him,
if he is thirsty, give him a drink,
for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head."
This is not easy to do when you've been hurt by someone. In fact, it can be pretty near impossible.
Does God require us to do the impossible?
Of course not. He knows very well that all kinds of emotions fill us when someone hurts us, rejects us, insults us, speaks against us, and these emotions are just the normal human reaction common to every human being. But the Lord does not want us to stay there. IF we confess our desire for vengeance and ask for the GRACE which will enable us, the Lord WILL settle our hearts and give us peace. Sometimes it will be immediate, sometimes it will be a process. The emotions may have gone deep and damaged the soul. If you bring to the Lord something that happened a long time ago, it may take time to heal the heart, sometimes peeling off one layer of damage at a time. But God will enable us and help us ...IF we ask.
We acknowledge the admonition from the Lord to forsake wrath and withhold acts of vengeance, but in bringing it to him we allow HIM to take responsibility for dealing with the person who hurt us.
God knows the situation thoroughly. He knows and understands the hurt you have sustained. And he cares. He cares very much. He counsels you to do nice things for that person, because that will demonstrate your faith when you act in obedience. Do it HIS way, by faith. That will start the process.
Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and said:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to preach the Gospel to the poor;
He has sent me TO HEAL THE BROKEN-HEARTED,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed..."
Luke 4:18
Meditate on this passage until it becomes life within you. He WILL perform this in your heart as you wait on him.
Pray with me:
Father, I bring to you this terrible hurt I have sustained because of ...(and here specify it, all of it.) Father, the hurt and the damage go deep. They are beyond my ability to deal with. The damage has bound me up in all manner of resentment and anger and desire for vengeance. I hear your Word and want to do as you say, but this is beyond me. So I bring the whole situation, all that went into it, all the damage it has done to me, all the unfairness ...and I lay it all before you asking you to take it over and heal my broken heart. Dealing with this is not humanly possible, Lord. But it is very possible with you. I surrender all that is inside me ...to you. I surrender my whole self to you. Please take this burden and be "the great Physician" to me and heal me, and enable me to do what is impossible to me - ENABLE me to forgive.
Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them,
‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine,
but I will give you assured peace in this place.’
And the Lord said to me, 'The prophets prophesy lies in my name.
I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them;
they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing,
and the deceit of their heart.'"
Jeremiah 14:13-14
Are there false prophets among us today?
Most assuredly, yes. They prophesy health, wealth, and prosperity. They misuse the Scriptures and make them say what the Lord is NOT saying. They proclaim that God's will for you is that you become rich, that every affliction be healed, and then they go on to teach you how to be a success in life.
What is missing from their message?
The Cross.
They don't preach about sin, therefore they don't need to mention the Cross - the Cross of Jesus Christ, and the cross we each must pick up to follow him.
"Then he said to them all,
'If anyone desires to come after me,
let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily,
and follow me.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.'"
Luke 9:23-24
DENY himself?
You'll never hear that from the prosperity teachers, from the "name it and claim it" teachers, from the false prophets.
Take up your CROSS daily? Lose your life for his sake? You'll never hear that from them. They teach heresy.
RUN from those who teach you a false gospel, and that's what it is, a false gospel. It's lies spoken in the name of the Lord, twisting Scripture to convince you. They will stand accountable before God for lying in his name, for misusing the holy Scriptures to promise health, wealth, and prosperity.
Health, wealth and prosperity will be ours in the world to come. The beauty and joy of heaven is beyond what our hearts can imagine.
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
nor have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared
for those who love him.”
1st Corinthians 2:9
That's for the world to come. While we're here however, we are in a battle for our lives and for the lives of others. We will be HATED, we will be REJECTED, we will be PERSECUTED for preaching the true Gospel. The enemy will do all he can to assail us and discourage us and beat us down. But our Lord, our God, has told us to expect that, so we are not to be bewildered when it happens. He has said to take up our CROSS daily, and follow him. Take up your cross, not your rolex.
"The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
IF INDEED WE SUFFER WITH HIM,
that we may also be glorified together."
Romans 8:16-17
vs 18:
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us."
“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord,
and he will pay back what he has given.”
Proverbs 19:17
God is the author of laws, and in this context we’re not speaking of legalities but rather of principles that work in life. If you throw a ball up, it will come back down. That is the law of gravity, one of thousands of laws God has established in the world. The same God who established the laws of the physical world, has also established laws in the spiritual world, and this passage in Proverbs is one of them. One cannot out-give God. If one takes compassion on the poor and helps him, he has lent to the Lord and the Lord will be no man’s debtor, what the man has given will surely be paid back by God himself.
God is not opposed to wealth, but he is very particular on how one gains it. The way to gain wealth is NOT to covet it, nor to focus on it, for the love of money is a root of evil and can destroy the soul.
“For the love of money is a root of all evil,
which while some COVETED after,
THEY HAVE ERRED FROM THE FAITH…”
1st Timothy 6:10
Those who covet money can destroy their faith by focusing on acquiring wealth. Jesus made that very clear:
“No one can serve two masters;
for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Matthew 6:24
In this principle that God has established, he is saying that one or the other will be your master. It’s going to be following after wealth, or it’s going to be following after God. One cannot have it both ways.
vs 21:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
So how DOES one become wealthy without following after mammon? And the answer to that is through being very careful to follow the principles God has put into play, and most of the principles detailed in the Word of God will be CONTRARY to the ways of the world.
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”
1st Corinthians 3:19
If you go after wealth using the principles of the world, you risk two things:
First, you can lose your faith because your treasure, your focus, is in the wrong place and you can’t serve two masters. This is a principle, be careful not to defy it.
Second, God has clearly said that the wisdom, the guidance, the teachings of the world are FOOLISHNESS to God, so following that trail is the way NOT to go lest you come to ruin through the foolishness of the world’s ways.
Well then, what principles HAS God put into play through which one may be rich without risking the loss of his faith nor losing it all through the foolishness of the world’s ways.
It's to seek FIRST the things of his Kingdom.
“But seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
The right way will be the opposite of the ways of the world. If a person does not lust after wealth and is not focusing on the worldly ways to acquire it, if that person’s focus is on the Kingdom of God, then the guarantee is that his needs will be met. It all depends on the focus of the heart. The principles of the Kingdom are in giving, not lusting. When a man’s heart is right, the material things needed will be provided. When his heart is on mammon, whatever he gains will always be subject to loss, not only in this life, but in the world to come as well.
Seeking after riches is not worth it, folks. Seeking first the Kingdom of God has reward both in this world and in the world to come.
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world,
and loses his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Matthew 16:26
