Ladies ~ Does life seem unfair? Do you have people in your life that are treating you badly? The world has an entirely different perspective on life than God wants His people to have. Sometimes the world will gossip, manipulate, lie, steal, and cheat. At times they may malign your good name, not give you what you think you deserve, favor others over you, and push their way up the “ladder” with no thought of anyone but themselves. These things are characteristic of the “dog-eat-dog” world that we live in; therefore, we should even expect to be treated badly at times. In fact, when the world realizes that you are a believer, they are apt to target their evils against you even more than anyone else. The truth is that we are all going to be wronged over and over in this life. When we are wronged, it does hurt. But if we live our lives focused on ourselves, our trials, or even those who inflict them upon us, we are doomed to fail. Remember that Satan goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. This is not a myth. This is a reality. We need to continually saturate our minds with truth and have faith in the answers that God gives to us through the written Word, the Holy Bible. If we do not spend quality time in His Word we will not live a victorious life. God has called us to apply His love supernaturally to those who inflict pain upon us, and this is easier said than done. Why? Because our spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak; sadly, sometimes our spirit isn’t even willing. When friction happens in the workplace, it can be tempting for us to succumb to the emotions that we feel at the moment instead of what we know to be right. The natural inclination of our human hearts would be to retaliate, to become angry, to seek vengeance, to protect ourselves, to withdraw emotionally and withhold our aid, and to become bitter or sullen when we are provoked. But instead, we need to look to the Lord for answers so that we will apply biblical principles to every situation that we are faced with. It is very natural to adopt a victim mentality or to retaliate, but we are not called to walk in the flesh; instead, we are to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and manifest the fruits of the Spirit. Jesus wants our hearts to be pure and our words and actions to honor Him, regardless of what others do to us. “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people” (1 Peter 2:15). “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:19-23). Instead of facing our trials as we view them in relation to us, we are to yield our attitudes to the Holy Spirit and seek to respond to these trials in ways that please and magnify Him. If we strive to maintain a God consciousness throughout the day, we will be less apt to look at trials as they pertain to us personally and instead, view them as opportunities to allow the reproaches of Christ to fall upon us and to share in His suffering. When we are constantly in prayer, reading and studying the Word of God every day with our focus on pleasing Him, we will be more apt to put off anger and respond with patience, put off lying and speak the truth, put off self-pity and put on thankfulness and joy, denying ourselves and yielding to the Spirit’s leading through us. This is living by faith. This has been an excerpt from my book “Woman of Virtue” - Applying Proverbs 31 to the Twenty-First-Century Woman” by Susan Brackley (you can order it through Christian Book Distributors, Amazon, Alibris, Barnes & Noble, or Westbow Press). christianbook/Christian/Books/product?item_no=852776&event=ESRCG
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 09:30:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015