God’s Way, not my Way
This is a clever “fake highway” sign. The ‘wrong way’ arrow is clearly marked, but what I particularly like is that the ‘my way’ arrow is the wrong way too. To go the ‘right way,’ we have to travel in a different direction.
In life, I’ve found that the right way–God’s way–isn’t usually my way. But I can choose His way over my own.
Choosing God’s Way: One Example
When someone mistreats me, my heart never fills with love and compassion for that person. Strange, isn’t it?
Instead, I get furious and that fury is my first warning.
The Personal Cost
If I’m not careful, this new injury could damage my inner life for years. If I refuse to go God’s way, my pain and anger quickly hardens like concrete into resentment and bitterness.
Every time we won’t forgive someone who’s hurt us, we give that person power over our happiness. They could be out of our lives for years or even dead. But it doesn’t matter. The minute our thoughts turn toward our injury, the bad memories surface, robbing us of contentment and peace.
Other people’s thoughtless words or cruel actions wound us. Fortunately, our Savior has provided His people with a cure.
Christ’s Cure for a Wounded Heart
During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his disciples to return good for evil.
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 and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:43-45 RSV)
Keep in mind that Jesus said to pray FOR our enemies. Frankly, this is hard to do. Asking God to bless someone who’s just hurt me is a real “flesh burner.”
When I’m hurt, acting like my Savior is difficult. But my painful emotional wounds heal when I forgive the people who have injured me.
Practical Help
To swim upstream against all that inner turmoil calls for a stubborn obedience to Jesus’ teachings.
I promise you, few humans have ever felt like returning good for evil or forgiving the people who’ve mistreated them.
So why did our Savior command us to do so?
Because Jesus wants His people emotionally healed from every injury and injustice a sinful world fires at us. Forgiving our enemies and blessing those who curse us is the key.
What Works for Me
To be honest, I’m terrible at forgiving people.
After my injury ‘hardens into concrete,’ letting go of the pain and forgiving those who hurt me is very hard to do.
So I’ve found a work-a-round.
Instead of letting my thoughts dwell on my outrage at being badly treated, I immediately start praying for the person who injured me.
Just like Jesus says to.
This is a internal fight I always need to win, because it’s the only way to restore my own peace.
Prayer short-circuits the process; my outrage doesn’t harden into bitterness. I let go of the injury much easier. Praying for my enemies has become my best weapon. If I start getting mad at that person again, I simply begin praying blessings on them again.
God’s “medicine” doesn’t always taste good, but it will make you well.
My heart softens the more I pray for the people who hurt me. For non-Christians, I start asking Christ to become their Savior and heal their inner pain too.
Obeying Jesus’s command has an added bonus.
It upsets the demons terribly.
My Second Ending: The Story I Couldn’t Leave Out
A Christian Dutch woman named Corrie ten Boom and her family saved Jews from the Nazis during World War 2. Eventually they were caught. The authorities sent Corrie and her older sister Betsy to a German concentration camp. Both were in their 50s. God helped them smuggle in a Bible. Thanks to their witnessing, many doomed women accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior before they died.
A few weeks after her sister died of starvation, Corrie was unexpectedly released and went home.
This Christian woman experienced true evil and horror, which makes her words about the healing power of forgiveness stunning. When Corrie returned to Holland, she opened a home for people who had suffered deeply because of Hitler’s evil policies.
She discovered that the ones who forgave their enemies healed. Those who refused and held onto their bitterness remained emotionally traumatized.
Our enemies often don’t deserve forgiveness, but that isn’t the point.
Do you want to be healed?
These images came from Pixabay.com.
Resources:
Enjoy the story of Corrie’s remarkable family in the Christian Classic, The Hiding Place.
