Have you ever noticed, I mean really considered, how tough it is to love and care about someone…after they have hurt you? Have you ever suffered lots of emotional pain when a loved one wronged you and filled your heart with grief? Are there still people in your life who once hurt your emotional heart so badly that you feel you’ll never be able to forgive them and give it all to God, and then begin praying for them?
We all have hurt and have been hurt by other people. The closer they are to you the greater will be the pain you experience. This is not a unique occurrence that only a select few experience….no,…. it happens all the time to almost all human beings….You are not alone, so do not feel that you are.
Like it or not, we live in a fallen world. Man is not a perfect creature. He or she is stuffed full of flaws and inadequacies. Consequently their (our) performances and personal interactions are bound to fall far short of the mark on many different occasions. The bald-face facts are simply that man is going to disagree with and even violently object to the manner and way another person thinks, acts, believes or decides. It just goes with man’s inability to get long well with his fellow man. Because it is a human nature problem, you can trace its origination all the way back to The Garden of Eden. Remember the world’s first murderer was born and grew up there. His name was Cain, and he slew his own brother!
If you are an unbeliever in the Lord Jesus Christ, then your reaction to an enemy or one who has hurt or wronged you is either (A) immediate retaliation…an eye for an eye…usually coupled with hate and anger or (B) some other type of punishment on your part to get even with the wrongdoer…settle your accounts with one another, so to speak. That seems to be the way they do it in the movies….according to the flesh. Fight fire with fire. Trade pain and hurt for more pain and hurt. That is man’s way to solve interpersonal disagreements and relationship problems, but it is not the way or manner that God wants us to react.
If you are a believer in The Lord Jesus Christ….if you are a Christian, you are to behave completely and totally opposite of a fleshly reaction, whenever you are hurt or wronged by another person,… even if they are your professed enemy.
Here is the way that God wants you to react to those other people who have or have attempted to harm you or your loved ones. It is recorded in The Book of Matthew, Chapter 5, verses 43-44, NKJV:
Love Your Enemies
(43) “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
(44) 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, ’ ”
Oh those words are so much easier to say than they are to do. Our fleshly spirit has to be totally under full control to enable us to be obedient to God’s instruction. Do you have your emotions under control?
We are often told by man to “forgive and forget” whenever a person mistreats or abuses us in one way or another. Easy to say,…hard to do. As a matter of fact, allow me to ask you a question…is it even possible for a human to forgive and forget totally and completely?
I do not believe that it is possible. Not for a man on his own to do. Now lets take this topic one step further. Man is capable of forgiving a trespasser of doing an evil deed. But man’s finite mind is not capable of completely forgetting anything done against him on a physical plane. Just to prove my point, do you still remember how much money you loaned to the person who still to this day has not repaid you?……You know the amount to the penny. God can forget everything as far as east is from west (an unmeasurable distance). Man does have the capacity to do the same. Man can forgive…but because of his pea-sized mind, he cannot forget.
And Jesus in His Instructions goes even further: He not only tells us to forgive and forget, but to love the one who hurt us and pray for that person’s welfare. We aren’t to erase the wrongdoer from our memories; we are to keep them in our prayers! Wow!
Can such an action even be done by a man? No–not without God’s help and guidance. So then, if we are to obey God’s Instruction, what are we to do?
First, remember how generously Christ forgave you. You hurt God far more than anyone has ever hurt you—and still God willingly sent his Son to die in your place so that you could be forgiven of your sins. Never forget how much it cost Christ to forgive you.
Second, begin seeing the person who harmed you through God’s eyes. He loves them just as He loves you. He doesn’t love what they did to you, but He does love them the same as He loves all of His Creation. Don’t hold on to your hurts any longer, but turn them over to Christ and ask Him to help you forgive others–and then love them just a He loves them.
Listen to and read the words of our God as recorded in The Book of John, Chapter 3, verses 16-17, NKJV:
(16) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
(17) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
God truly does love you. He wants the very best for you in your life here on earth. He has given all of us His Word and His Instruction as to how we are to live so as to position ourselves to receive all of the blessing He has prepared for us to enjoy. All He asks,…no, all He demands…is our unfailing obedience to follow and obey His instructions, just as they are recorded in The Bible.
You know and I know that together,…we can do that! Together we can do the most difficult thing we will ever do…. “forgive those who trespass against us” and love our enemies and forget about the wrongs they have done to us….Just as God did for us.
Peace and love to all of you………Poppa Bear