Every other month I give a devotion to the ladies at my church. This is one that I have been mulling over for awhile and will give at my next ladies' meeting. Just wanted to share....
During the weeks before my son Isaac was assaulted, I was studying the book of Job. I was about two-thirds done when I had to take that emergency flight to California. When I came back I almost did not want to finish reading Job. I feared that maybe by laying on my heart to read Job that the Lord might have been preparing me for tragedy to hit my life once again. But I determined to face whatever it was that the Lord wanted me to face and when I came back from California I finished reading Job. Whenever thinking about Job I had always focused on one thing: giving thanks to God in every situation -- in the good times and in the bad times. That song by the Lanny Wolf Trio "In Everything Give Thanks" has been one of my favorites. I would think about Job and focus on how Job was so dedicated to God that even though he lost everything, and even though his wife and his friends were ill-advising him, he stayed true to God and did not curse God for allowing those tragedies to face him. "Why God?" is a question I used to always ask God. I tried my very best to do things right, to be a good Christian, and I saw other people that I saw as not doing their best, as being bad people, that seemed to be blessed. Job was a good man and bad things happened to him anyway so that is what I usually focused on. However, when I got back from California and finished reading about Job, one thing struck me that I had never noticed before. It hit me strong. I felt like the Lord wanted me to address the issue in some kind of way, to develop the thought, but I couldn't quite figure out how. So for the past year and a half, off and on, I revisit the thought. I finally figured a way that I might be able to share this thought with you and I hope I do it justice. In the last chapter of Job - chapter 42, the Lord spoke to Job's three friends -Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. He told them that His wrath was kindled against them because they didn't speak of God the thing that was right. They didn't help Job's situation any with what they were saying. So God made them go offer a sacrifice and go have Job pray for them. Job 42:10 is the verse that really grabbed my attention. It says:
Job 42:10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Here Job was suffering the loss of his children, suffering the loss of all his material wealth, his wife wasn't making the situation any better with her remarks, and here are his three friends who might have done a better job of comforting Job if they had just silently been there for him. Whatever advice they tried to give him didn't help his situation, it just served to make him feel worse. You might think that Job had every right to carry a grudge since God Himself wasn't happy with his friends. But what does God have Job do? He has Job pray for his friends instead of nursing a grudge. Notice at what point things changed for Job....the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.
You know, the things that are written in the Bible are for us to learn from. The word is there to perfect us. We fall so miserably short from what God wants us to do and to be, from how God wants us to think. We need to learn from Job. There may be somebody in our life, our church, our family, at our work, or close to home that maybe we don't get along the best with. Maybe that somebody has offended us in some way or maybe that somebody hasn't directly offended us but that somebody does or says things in a way that irritates us. Maybe it is somebody that we just don't "click" with. May it is somebody that has deliberately said or done things to hurt us. Maybe that person is a family member, maybe a church member, or maybe a coworker. We are imperfect people surrounded by imperfect people. I certainly have been offended at one time or another by somebody, and it hurts! The thing is that regardless of whether it hurts or not, we have to do the Christian thing. We must do our part to be reconciled with that person and most of all pray for that person.
Matthew 5:23-24 says:
Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Before you give your gift at the altar, if you know somebody feels in some way offended by you, go find that person and reconcile the problem. Take a good look at these scriptures. They don't say "if you offended your brother". It's a little bit easier to eat humble pie and ask someone to forgive us when we know we are in the wrong. But look at what these verses say. "if your brother has something against you". It could be that we think we didn't do anything wrong, that it was all the other person's fault and not our fault at all so that person should just "get over it". But this scripture doesn't say to only reconcile if it is our own fault. If you know that the person is in some way offended, reconcile! It's hard to eat humble pie when we think we are in the right and the other person is the one in the wrong, isn't it?!
Let's take a look at Matthew 5:44-48.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Wow, what a hard lesson to learn. But these are words that came from Christ himself.
We are commanded to love everyone, even the people we don't like. Even the people that have wronged us.
We are commanded to bless them.
We are commanded to pray for them.
Verse 45 says "that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven". If we want to be children of God, we must love and bless and pray for others, even the ones we don't want to. Especially the ones we don't want to. God makes His sun to shine on the evil and on the good. Therefore, if we want a blessing we cannot choose to just pray for this one or that one. If we want a blessing we must especially pray for the ones we don't like. Why? Because it is the right thing to do. We have to get past our petty differences. We must! This isn't an easy thing to do. I'm still working on it. There is somebody at work that doesn't like me. She is constantly displaying how much she despises me. It is not easy for me to smile at her and say hi to her. But verse 47 says "if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?" It is my duty to treat her with a smile. It is my duty to be nice to her. It is my duty to pray for her.
Romans 12:19-21 says,
"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
What happened to Job after he prayed for his friends that he could have held a grudge against? The Lord turned his captivity from him. Job was healed. Job received a blessing twice as much as what he had before.
If we want healing in our lives, if we want a blessing in our lives, if we want to be God's children, then we must learn to reconcile our differences and pray for each other, even for the ones we don't feel like. That's how we will receive our blessing.
In closing I would like to bring your attention to James 5:16:
Jam 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
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"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
great read.. thank you so much for reminding us that we are to love one another regardless.. i am sure the ladies will be blessed when they hear it.. God Bless you for your faithfulness to him and his Word..
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wayne
"There's room at the cross for you."
Very nice message, Your a gifted writer. I am in the process of reading "Total Forgiveness" by R.T. Kendall. I highly reccomend it. One thing that always impresses me is how good I feel after I have forgiven someone.
Are You Nursing a Grudge?
