Nice & Wavy
Well-Known Member
A Day of Offenses - When People Let You Down (byam Clark)
This is a season of offenses. We have to deal with them, and so few people do things the Biblical way when they are upset. It can be big things, it can be little things, but people and even ministers can let you down.
Usually the little things you can work through, realizing we are all human and subject to weakness, but the big things can be a real battle for your soul - especially if you really looked up to the person to represent something to you.
Someone ran off with someone else, someone lied or did things to gain advantage leaving wreckage in their wake, someone ignored you or made a point to cut you out, some people were majorly ripped off, some were played for the fool, some have even been murdered. Some just plain don't care.
You grieve the loss, sometimes like a death, because it or they die to you. I lost dear friends over betrayers and senseless acts, and it stung, it hurt, it wasn't fair or right and I had to make a stand for the conviction in my soul, but there was a grieving and mourning period over it. You can even get angry at yourself for mourning those who betray you or let you down, but you have to realize it is because you put value on it, even if the others didn't.
You try to make excuses and justify it but sometimes the facts are just plain out there! Yes, you have to forgive them and go on and trust them to God for His higher will and good purpose, but some things are damaging and don't "just go away." We wish they did!!! Some things can never be recovered and there is a reality to that.
But God can help!
God is still there to carry us through the mourning period, and it's really bad if the betrayal or loss identifies you with something out of your character and is not true. But, trying to define yourself usually doesn't work because it makes it look like you are justifying yourself for what went wrong. It never hurts to try, but sometimes it is just beyond us.
I think of the people who proudly endorsed their minister's leadership only to find that he (or she) failed them. Different things mean something different to different people on different levels. What bothers some does not bother others as much and it's hard when people can't hear what your heart is saying. You cared!
Many times people you look up to have helped you heal and when they let you down, it seems the wound has become ripped open again. For some, the event is a total shock. Sometimes let downs come in waves. Job experienced this. One thing after another after another, while all his friends said, "Job, you did it wrong! You didn't fear God!" But, he did. Or they say "Just get over it" because the depth of its effect is light compared to the way you feel/felt it. Remember this: only God can carry our sorrows. And when others are calloused and indifferent, you finally realize that it doesn't matter if they don't understand. You still have value that perhaps they can't see.
While we don't understand why, we have to know that God knows. Sometimes people are acting out of their own pain. Sometimes they are just foolish and sometimes they are selfish and we become self-focused when the value we have put on it is high - it's important to us to make a noise about it because it meant something to us.
But, we still have to take it to the Word and filter life through the Scriptures. Sin happens and there are consequences. You must realize that no one escapes pain and that God is the great justifier! Even in the Psalms, the writers cry, "Why do the wicked prosper?" It seems all they do flourishes. It's denial to say there is no evil in the world, but you have to ask yourself, whose side do you want to be on? Life can go on because you do have hope and faith in God.
Some things work to steal your identity. Slander, lies, attacks, verbal abuse, thefts, betrayals….but God still sits on His Throne!!! We can't go on if we don't allow this to be a learning and growth experience. You still have your identity in Him as His child. If you read the Scriptures, you will see that He is a God who justifies. If may take awhile, sometimes seemingly even forever, but He holds eternity and no one slides by with injustices. No one.
Because of violence and the wickedness that was so prevalent, God destroyed the world in Noah's day. He will reckon with it again. Only a blind person would not notice that evil is on the rise, but for the believers in God, He has made a way of escape, even life forever more. That is something to hold on to. Selah.
Sometimes the pain is such that we don't want to live anymore. That is a death to self. It's ridiculous to think others can judge you there. Only you and God can. In death to self, a wisdom comes that takes you beyond the present circumstances and it enlarges your vision. It's true that in the bigger picture, you may have to travail for your hope, but you can do it. You can get it again, even a greater one possibly, if you can see at all beyond the present circumstances.
People will try to read into what you do. But you know, it doesn't matter because people are either on God's side and His ways or on the devil's side. Sure they will deny it when they did it wrong, but often the convicting power of the Holy Spirit did not go away. He is dealing with it, but…He is dealing with it in you too! You have to allow Him to be your friend. People who hold you to the past are limited themselves.
If you sinned, repent so you can be set free. But, if others have sinned against you, trust your future to God. Sometimes survival is a big deal. The dainty often abhor the streetwise until its time for them to survive. Then, they are open for lessons. God is a justifier and an equalizer.
Your prayers are very important in times of grief and sorrow. Your earnestness is showing! Sometimes our efforts for God show best to Him then. Then when He blesses you later on, you don't feel so guilty for getting blessed, even if others gnash their teeth at your blessing!
God is in the business of souls. An easy life does not make a tranquil soul or an approved one. Most all of us do the best we can but some have forsaken the restrainer or acted out of their own pain. Some the Bible says, have seared themselves as with a hot iron and are callous. Know that one day the callouses will come off. It's what you do with your tender feelings that matter. Were those feelings given to God? If so, there is hope in your end! God noted that and even though its hard, what you do for HIm and in Him makes a difference.
MAKE YOUR LIFE COUNT! Keep your value on it. Don't throw it away because people let you down or came against you. Somewhere out there, someone will be healed when they find out that someone else went throughout the same thing or similar and survived.
Your pains is yours. It puts a value on things and on you because you will act out of that. God puts a value on you when you do it His way and give it to Him. He will recompense, and He is zealous and jealous over His own! YOU ARE HIS OWN!!!
He made you and He loves you. God knows you fully and accepts you fully…isn't that something!
God has a message for the world and that message is simply this: He loved people so much that He gave His only begotten Son (sent from Himself, not created) that whosoever believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. God did not send His Son to condemn the world; but that the world through Him (Jesus) might be saved! John 3:16 & 17
Let's give that message…even if we must endure and take on the fellowship of His sufferings. The good news is that trouble is not forever if we are in Him!!!
This is a season of offenses. We have to deal with them, and so few people do things the Biblical way when they are upset. It can be big things, it can be little things, but people and even ministers can let you down.
Usually the little things you can work through, realizing we are all human and subject to weakness, but the big things can be a real battle for your soul - especially if you really looked up to the person to represent something to you.
Someone ran off with someone else, someone lied or did things to gain advantage leaving wreckage in their wake, someone ignored you or made a point to cut you out, some people were majorly ripped off, some were played for the fool, some have even been murdered. Some just plain don't care.
You grieve the loss, sometimes like a death, because it or they die to you. I lost dear friends over betrayers and senseless acts, and it stung, it hurt, it wasn't fair or right and I had to make a stand for the conviction in my soul, but there was a grieving and mourning period over it. You can even get angry at yourself for mourning those who betray you or let you down, but you have to realize it is because you put value on it, even if the others didn't.
You try to make excuses and justify it but sometimes the facts are just plain out there! Yes, you have to forgive them and go on and trust them to God for His higher will and good purpose, but some things are damaging and don't "just go away." We wish they did!!! Some things can never be recovered and there is a reality to that.
But God can help!
God is still there to carry us through the mourning period, and it's really bad if the betrayal or loss identifies you with something out of your character and is not true. But, trying to define yourself usually doesn't work because it makes it look like you are justifying yourself for what went wrong. It never hurts to try, but sometimes it is just beyond us.
I think of the people who proudly endorsed their minister's leadership only to find that he (or she) failed them. Different things mean something different to different people on different levels. What bothers some does not bother others as much and it's hard when people can't hear what your heart is saying. You cared!
Many times people you look up to have helped you heal and when they let you down, it seems the wound has become ripped open again. For some, the event is a total shock. Sometimes let downs come in waves. Job experienced this. One thing after another after another, while all his friends said, "Job, you did it wrong! You didn't fear God!" But, he did. Or they say "Just get over it" because the depth of its effect is light compared to the way you feel/felt it. Remember this: only God can carry our sorrows. And when others are calloused and indifferent, you finally realize that it doesn't matter if they don't understand. You still have value that perhaps they can't see.
While we don't understand why, we have to know that God knows. Sometimes people are acting out of their own pain. Sometimes they are just foolish and sometimes they are selfish and we become self-focused when the value we have put on it is high - it's important to us to make a noise about it because it meant something to us.
But, we still have to take it to the Word and filter life through the Scriptures. Sin happens and there are consequences. You must realize that no one escapes pain and that God is the great justifier! Even in the Psalms, the writers cry, "Why do the wicked prosper?" It seems all they do flourishes. It's denial to say there is no evil in the world, but you have to ask yourself, whose side do you want to be on? Life can go on because you do have hope and faith in God.
Some things work to steal your identity. Slander, lies, attacks, verbal abuse, thefts, betrayals….but God still sits on His Throne!!! We can't go on if we don't allow this to be a learning and growth experience. You still have your identity in Him as His child. If you read the Scriptures, you will see that He is a God who justifies. If may take awhile, sometimes seemingly even forever, but He holds eternity and no one slides by with injustices. No one.
Because of violence and the wickedness that was so prevalent, God destroyed the world in Noah's day. He will reckon with it again. Only a blind person would not notice that evil is on the rise, but for the believers in God, He has made a way of escape, even life forever more. That is something to hold on to. Selah.
Sometimes the pain is such that we don't want to live anymore. That is a death to self. It's ridiculous to think others can judge you there. Only you and God can. In death to self, a wisdom comes that takes you beyond the present circumstances and it enlarges your vision. It's true that in the bigger picture, you may have to travail for your hope, but you can do it. You can get it again, even a greater one possibly, if you can see at all beyond the present circumstances.
People will try to read into what you do. But you know, it doesn't matter because people are either on God's side and His ways or on the devil's side. Sure they will deny it when they did it wrong, but often the convicting power of the Holy Spirit did not go away. He is dealing with it, but…He is dealing with it in you too! You have to allow Him to be your friend. People who hold you to the past are limited themselves.
If you sinned, repent so you can be set free. But, if others have sinned against you, trust your future to God. Sometimes survival is a big deal. The dainty often abhor the streetwise until its time for them to survive. Then, they are open for lessons. God is a justifier and an equalizer.
Your prayers are very important in times of grief and sorrow. Your earnestness is showing! Sometimes our efforts for God show best to Him then. Then when He blesses you later on, you don't feel so guilty for getting blessed, even if others gnash their teeth at your blessing!
God is in the business of souls. An easy life does not make a tranquil soul or an approved one. Most all of us do the best we can but some have forsaken the restrainer or acted out of their own pain. Some the Bible says, have seared themselves as with a hot iron and are callous. Know that one day the callouses will come off. It's what you do with your tender feelings that matter. Were those feelings given to God? If so, there is hope in your end! God noted that and even though its hard, what you do for HIm and in Him makes a difference.
MAKE YOUR LIFE COUNT! Keep your value on it. Don't throw it away because people let you down or came against you. Somewhere out there, someone will be healed when they find out that someone else went throughout the same thing or similar and survived.
Your pains is yours. It puts a value on things and on you because you will act out of that. God puts a value on you when you do it His way and give it to Him. He will recompense, and He is zealous and jealous over His own! YOU ARE HIS OWN!!!
He made you and He loves you. God knows you fully and accepts you fully…isn't that something!
God has a message for the world and that message is simply this: He loved people so much that He gave His only begotten Son (sent from Himself, not created) that whosoever believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. God did not send His Son to condemn the world; but that the world through Him (Jesus) might be saved! John 3:16 & 17
Let's give that message…even if we must endure and take on the fellowship of His sufferings. The good news is that trouble is not forever if we are in Him!!!