TAKE UP YOUR CROSS! IT'S OK! 5/5/12
Many times in life, we suffer because of naivety and lack of knowledge. But, God would not have us be ignorant to the truth.
Not everyone you counter in life will see, receive or accept you for who and what you truly are. Often it’s because of ignorance, but many times it is by choice. Some folks seem to have been born with the insatiable appetite for destroying others. Some live their lives, plotting, planning and executing the demise of others for no other reason than to hurt someone.
I don’t think that there is a person alive who could honestly say that they have never been intentionally offended by someone.
Often it is the people in your own circle, your family or your workplace, the people that you genuinely love and care for, who at times are the most unbelievable offenders. In fact, some of you who are reading this right now, will be back stabbed by someone you trust. Your good, will be evil spoken of. Someone will tell a lie on you. Someone will gossip about you. It is a fact of life. We must all learn to expect that folks will dishonor, disrespect and disregard us.
For some folks, you will never be good enough in any area of your life to keep their mouth off of you. Knowing that you will NEVER be able to please everyone, is the best information to have! Someone will always find a reason to disapprove of and to complain about you. But, you must know that, what people say or do against you, cannot affect you unless you allow it to. They cannot change who you are unless you submit to the change.
Some of the worst hurt that some ministers and congregants alike, will ever endure, will be inflicted by church folks. We must expect it and not become ill focused by it. Regardless of how well you preach, reach, sing or minister, it will never be good enough for some. There will always be someone else that you will be compared to and undervalued because of.
Your confession of Christ as Savior, does not indicate exemption from offenses by others, but rather it enlists you. John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. We must be willing to go the last mile for the sake of the cross. In Mark 8:34 says: And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Jesus had to bear the cross of liars, traitors, backbiters, slanders, deceivers, hypocrites and all manner of treachery against Him. We who follow in His footsteps must expect the same, knowing that if they did it to Jesus, they will do it to us.
Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let nothing or no one separate you from your purpose in God! Rebuke them and run on in the name of the Lord!
Agape!
