FORGIVING OUR ENEMY

God will fight for us

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

Sometimes in life we may be faced with a situation where we have to correct someone.  Recently I had to address someone who had become what I felt was a thorn in my side.  This person had for years sought opportunity to undermine my teachings on a certain forum.  Even though she had been instructed not to do so by the admin, she continued with this activity.  I would delete her comments only to have her repost them.  On one occasion this happened no less than 6 times.

I prayed about the matter and asked the Lord what my response to her should be when this deleting of her comment, and having it reposted by her was occurring. I typed a couple of things that I felt the Holy Spirit told me were the wrong things to write, and deleted them.  Eventually, I wrote something like this:  I know you have been told not to comment on my posts.  I will be reporting this to the admin. I wish you would exercise more self-control.  I also wrote…I wish you would not let the devil use you to harass me.  Those comments, I felt the Holy Spirit allowed. 

Well, I was strongly rebuked by the admin and told that if “we” did not stop arguing with each other, we would “both” be banned from the site.  I felt this was grossly unfair, as I was on the receiving end of what felt like bullying and knew that my comments were ok.  By the way, this same individual has also bullied others.  One person, I know of, even left the site because of her harassment.

Most of us, as Christians, want to be pleasant towards others, at all times.  However, there is a time to rebuke, correct and train. Jesus spoke with great love, He also corrected with great love.  He told the Scribes and Pharisees Matthew 23:27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness. (Sepulchers are tombs). Wow! Yet Jesus loved the Scribes and Pharisees. He was commenting on their state of mind.

Now, I am not saying we should go around calling people, tombs filled with dead bones 😊. However, sometimes we may have to point out to someone what they are doing wrong, especially if it is affecting us personally.  I asked the Lord if I needed to repent for what I wrote and I felt in my spirit that no repentance was needed.  I know, however, that the Lord wants me to forgive her and to not harbor resentment in my heart.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit, this is where His work comes in 😊

The bible tells us that ALL who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12) Jesus also said, if they persecute me, they will also persecute you (John 15:20).  If Jesus who never sinned; who went about doing nothing but good, was persecuted, how can we expect to not be. When this happens, our recourse is to seek the Lord for His guidance on how to handle the matter.  The flesh will come up with many different ways 😊  but this is a time to be led by the Spirit.