Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
This scripture in Matthew Chapter 5 is given immediately following the Sermon on the Mount, where is verse 9 The Lord said “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” It’s easy to make peace when it suites you or when the other side also wants peace but have you tried to make peace when your enemies hate and despise you? Have a look at verse 44 where the Lord says “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”.
Can you imagine doing good to someone who hates you and blessing them who curse you?
Recently I faced an incident in a very public place where a certain older man in his late 50’s used the most foul disgusting language to swear in my face and humiliated me. Some years ago I would have reacted very differently to this type of behavior but let’s just say I would have immediately taken action. This time I found the resolve and strength that comes only from God to let him say it all out, and I even went back to him a second time and said calmly it was not acceptable nor befitting for a him to say and behave like he did and of course I got a second round of worse insults, false accusations and lies against me, my wife and colleague. I had to restrain myself from responding or reacting negatively and walked calmly back to my car and left. In considering my possible options and after speaking to my lawyers who told me I was fully within my rights to lay charges against him with the police for verbal assault and even get a peace order; I went home to ponder and discuss it with my family. After this type of behavior and treatment how I could possibly “do good” and “bless” this man. After praying we felt we must forgive him and we actually felt quite sad and sorry for him to be in misery for all eternity.
People like him who are lost, sad, angry, full of malice, jealously and hatred need the love of God in their lives and that’s why we must forgive them and pray for them to have peace. This is the easier part for me but the real test is to be obedient and live by doing “good” and “love” to my enemies.
The same man who offended me that day has also been peddling a lie that I had his wife thrown in jail for 3 days. He hopes by saying this he will discredit me. I will not stoop to his level to try defend myself against such nonsense. I have never had anyone’s wife thrown in jail and would not do such a thing.
There is a saying “those who matter don’t care and those who care don’t matter”!
My decision was to not take action against him despite the fact that I had the power to do so and more importantly that I also knew he had done a lot of other bad things to me by making up lies and trying to destroy my credibility and harm my reputation. I didn’t take action not because I didn’t feel like I wanted sweet revenge or because I didn’t want to teach him a good lesson but rather because taking revenge on him or retaliation in any way would not be what the Lord wanted.
However the first thing to “do good” is simply not to do any bad and the Lord talked of the action ‘Agape’ love which is a verb and not a feeling. This is a story for another day but simply put the doing ‘love’ to them is not the same as the feeling ‘love’.
I decided to give it to God and leave it in his hands. Immediately I felt at peace and relieved.
On consideration I feel we must pray for people who get satisfaction from malicious lies and rumors that cause hatred which is cancerous for the body and soul.
Even though I had to go through this situation I came out more humble and better as a person and I know my father in heaven will protect me for doing what’s right.
All the difficulties I have faced in my life; near death, reputational attacks, humiliation, false accusation, jealousy and unneccary legal battles and much more make it almost impossible to have to deal with as a man but I want to encourage you that with God all things are possible and thats why you must not give up and have faith and patience in God. I even thank God for giving me these challenges in my life and and testing me in the refiners fire with people like that because these things make me humble and even stronger. Truth always conquers lies and it comes like the morning sunshine after deep darkness.
In conclusion of this weeks blog I share this experience with you as part of my continued story for the true facts to be known and not so that you feel sorry for me but because I want you to believe that what challenges you go through is for your own good to make you stronger. Don’t give up!
