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We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another. Galatians 5:26 (GNT)
I have a friend who seems to find great fulfillment in annoying people. He’d never admit it, of course, but it’s almost as if he considers irritating others a spiritual gift of some sort! He would often boast to me about how he cornered people who had differing views politically, theologically or socially. He was a well-versed and well-studied man in both the scriptures and the political scene so his arguments were hard to dispute and his persistence was relentless.
While I agreed with many of his arguments, his tactics bothered me. There was one time in which he actually boasted to me about how he’d offended the people in a particular political party booth. Not surprisingly, my friend had few close friends although he was well known in many circles.
When Paul is writing to the Galatians he is writing to a group of people who were well-versed in doctrine. However, they had taken their knowledge and used it as a platform to let everyone know how ‘right they were’ and had no patience or time for anyone who differed with them theologically or doctrinally. His message to the believers is to refrain from using their knowledge of scripture as a tool to irritate and antagonize those who believed and lived differently than they did.
The key to peace with God is relationship, a relationship built on Jesus Christ. The key to peace with ourselves is confidence in and acceptance of who we are, or, again relationship with ourselves. The key to peace with others is, you guessed it, relationship. To have a strong relationship with others means we are more intent on building peace than arguments.
When we are honest with ourselves we have to admit that most of the conflict we have with other people is the result of our trying to be ‘better’ than someone else either in what we believe or what we do. Jesus, as creator God never used his superior knowledge to antagonize those who needed forgiveness. In the same way, we are called to spread the good news, not adversity. As believers in Jesus Christ we are commissioned to build up not tear down. To live in peace and unity, not antagonize.
Paul admonishes us to ‘live at peace with others when at all possible.’ Don’t be the reason for the strife in your relationships. Hold others in higher esteem than you hold yourself. Living at peace with yourself is the first step to living at peace with others.
There is no place in the Christian life for us to ridicule others, or mock them for their beliefs. People have a right to be wrong and to be valued in spite of their beliefs. We don’t need to agree with others to live at peace with them.
PRAYER: Lord I thank you for who I am. Forgive me for those times when I compare myself and what I have to others. Empower me to live at peace with myself and what you have given me so that I can live at peace with those around me. Amen.
He was hated and rejected; his life was filled with sorrow and terrible suffering. No one wanted to look at him. We despised him and said, “He is a nobody!” Isaiah 53:3 (CEV)
Loneliness and rejection are evil twins. Together they rob us of our feeling of security and self-confidence. They team up with weapons that destroy our ability to love others, love God and perhaps most importantly, love ourselves.
There are times in each of our lives when we feel the scorn of rejected love; times when loneliness envelopes us like some dark cloud. Those feelings of rejection may be the result of our own doing, our own greed, our own self-centeredness, our own demanding personality.
The evil twins may attack us through the abusive actions of other people as well. Broken relationships are the weapon of choice for the twins. Struggles in the work place, or at school make us dread having to get up in the morning. The battle for our health leaves us weary. Even our own family members may abandon us for a variety of reasons leaving us full of despair.
The good news is that you are not alone. Regardless of the attacks on your soul, you are not rejected. Men may reject you, but there is one who knows rejection like none other and he will never reject you. He will never leave you alone.
His name is Jesus of Nazareth. No one in all of time has ever been as rejected as he was (and is). He left his father in heaven to walk among men. These were the very people that he created for the purpose of having a vibrant, passionate love relationship with. Yet few really loved him in the beginning and in the end, even those closest to him, those who pledged undying love, left him to die alone.
Jesus knew rejection. Jesus knew loneliness. Even his own father was forced to turn his back on him because of the sin he bore; our sin that he took in our place. Jesus most haunting words were some of the last he spoke before he died, “My God, My God! Why have you too forsaken me?” Everyone else had rejected him in his hour of deepest need, and now even his dad had turned his head.
To this day, his name turns people away. Talk about God and you are a person of faith; talk about Jesus and you are a religious fanatic. It’s okay to be ‘spiritual’ but claim there is only one way to peace with God and you are intolerant. Believing in heaven is full of hope, but talk of hell and eternal damnation is cruel and harsh.
I’ll say it again. You are not alone. You are not rejected by everyone. The one person who knows rejection better than anyone has not rejected you regardless of what you have done. The one who has experienced ultimate loneliness will never leave you alone. He’s waiting with open arms to hear your story, to see your heart and to comfort you in your deepest need.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus there are times when I get so caught up in ‘religion’ or ‘spirituality’ that I forget the relationship. There are times when the feelings of loneliness and rejection overwhelm me. Thank you for accepting me as I am. Thank you for never leaving me, even when I walk away from you. Amen.
In the same way you younger people must submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you must put on the apron of humility, to serve one another; for the scripture says, God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5 (GNT)
The story went largely unnoticed. A little boy disappears and for two years no one seemed to notice he was gone. No school inquiries. No social service visits. No neighbors or friends wondering aloud what happened to ‘Johnny’. Not even a mention from the sister. Johnny’s body was discovered two years later.
Horrendous! Unthinkable! To be sure. But, although this is an extreme case, similar things happen all the time. They don’t find these bodies though because they are still up and walking around. They don’t see the wounds because skin still covers them.
‘They’ are the single girl that’s the topic of discussion at the office water cooler. You know the one. She’s the one who’s pregnant…again. No one knows who the father is to this child. Although she is friendly and polite, she hears the whispers. She feels the glares. Wounded and bleeding on the inside, she goes about her tasks, seemingly oblivious to the pain.
‘They’ are the kids on the street corner. You know the ones. Skateboards in hand and jeans at their ankles, they seem unaffected by your stares and unresponsive to your opinion of their dress and their leisure activities.
‘They’ turn up everywhere. They are in every crowd, yet all alone. They are looking for something to hold onto. Something within themselves that tells them they are okay, that reminds them they are worth being loved. They’ve shunned the religious rules and regulations. They’ve found no peace there, no acceptance, no understanding.
For many, too many, they never find it. Never find that someone who assures them that in spite of the baggage they are okay; that regardless of the poor choices they make there is someone who loves them enough to die for them. No judgment. No pre-requisites. No expiration date.
The Apostle Peter remembers the day he felt like that. The day he’d failed miserably and left his best friend alone to die. He remembers, just hours before Jesus’ death the apron he wore to wash Peter’s feet.
Now, he asks us. Will you wear the apron? Will you show others the great love Jesus’ has for you by wearing the apron to serve, accept and love those who others see right through? They are alone and unnoticed; wounded and afraid; ashamed and embarrassed. They are the ones Jesus sent us to find.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you sought me out when I was unlovely. You accepted me when I rejected you. You forgave me when I willfully rebelled against you. Empower me with your Spirit to show others the same humble spirit you showed to me. Help me to wear the apron of humility around those who, while in the crowd, feel completely alone. Amen.
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 1 John 5:20 (NIV)
Take a moment to sit back and contemplate what this means: God loves you.
Before you think I’ve totally lost it, take some more time and ponder what this really means.
If you believe God to be Jehovah God, the creator/sustainer of the universe, the one who put all this together, every seen and unseen thing around us. If you believe this God to be the one who steers the hurricanes, rattles the earth during an earthquake, and directs all of nature in its course. Remember. God loves you.
It’s really too huge to wrap your mind around it in some ways. I am so insignificant. My influence on this world will be a in a tiny little corner of the world and for only a few years when compared to eternity. I’m nothing more than a speck on the timeline of eternity! Yet God loves me!
The phrase translated, “And we are in him’ eludes us if we aren’t careful. ‘We are in him.’ To be in him describes the most intimate of relationships. We’ve cheapened that word intimacy to refer to a physical, sexual encounter but it’s so much more than that.
Intimacy speaks of those relationships where we know exactly what the other is thinking. We know their next move; we anticipate correctly their response to a question, a joke, a life event. We laugh with them; we cry with them…we laugh at our crying over silly movies!
How can I, a mere speck, know God so well that I know his thoughts intimately? There is only one way this miracle could happen happen. He had to desire me, long before I could desire him. He had to want to know me so well that he was willing to go to any length to reach me.
That’s where Jesus comes in. A personal, deepening relationship with Jesus Christ allows us to join together in a most intimate of relationships. Jehovah God WANTS to love me. He WANTS to know me. He WANTS to reveal himself to me through his Spirit, nature and his Word. But it all starts with Jesus.
Perhaps I haven’t told you anything new today. You already knew all this? Then take some time to remind yourself of his love and to remind him how thankful you are.
On the other hand, perhaps you are enslaved by fear of the future, frustrations of the present or shadows of your past. For you, ask him to reveal himself through his son Jesus. Jehovah God has been looking for an opportunity to show you his love.
PRAYER: Father, I get busy with my writing. I get busy with family, church, my career and all the good things in life. But sometimes I get so caught up in the good I miss the excellent. Thank you for loving me passionately. Empower me through your Spirit, because of Jesus, to understand you more. Amen.
But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:8 (NIV)
There is nothing more secure than the personal prisons we can find ourselves locked into.
The prison of loneliness can keep us trapped even when dwelling in the midst of close family and friends who are completely unaware of the battle within us.
The unrelenting handcuffs of addiction keep us shackled to feelings of guilt and shame. Guilt of our own doing fueled by the disapproving glances of those who spend more time gazing at specks in the eyes of others while ignoring the planks in their own eyes. Shame because we know better but we can’t help ourselves out of the mix.
We dwell in the solitary confinement of broken relationships. On the one hand we want desperately to get out. On the other hand fear of the outcome and not knowing how we could do life any differently keep us from reaching for the keys that enable us to see ourselves as the gifted talented people we are.
There are so many other prisons that keep us enslaved. Some, like finances/debt, handicapping conditions, and health issues are badges we wear that others identify us by even though we wish we could shed them.
Physical shackles are hard to endure, but they are no match for the emotional/relational wounds of the soul that handcuff us on a daily basis. These are the feelings that are hidden from others yet still define who we are and how we react to the problems of life.
Even though we try many different things to try to relieve the pain or at least dull its effects, nothing seems to help. Frustration and despair become strange bedfellows to failure and defeat. We ask ourselves, isn’t there someone who sees my plight? Is there anyone who understands me and loves me for who I am, bruises and all?
The answer is a resounding YES! The Creator God of the universe loves you. He’s not the god you may have learned about in religion. He’s not the judgmental, angry, accusing god at the other end of a pointing finger of accusation. He’s promised to love you. Not because of anything you’ve done. In fact, He loves you inspire of what you have done. He requires nothing in return. He simply wants to destroy the walls of the prison you find yourself in, destroy the chains, and release the shackles.
Regardless of what the voices in your mind tell you, you are loved. He proved that by sending Jesus to die for you, to redeem you from prison. Accept his love. Accept his forgiveness. Live free! Pray this prayer and begin your life of freedom.
PRAYER: Thank you God for loving me so much. I’m lonely, defeated and full of shame and guilt. Forgive me for the sin, anger, hate and hurt I hold so tightly too. Fill me with your Spirit of love and freedom so I can be all you want me to be. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 