Do not waste time pining away for those who have rejected you. It is natural to grieve for a time over lost relationships, just as Christ wept over Jerusalem because they rejected Him, but then there is a time for moving on, nurturing and enjoying the relationships you do have that share your joy in the Lord.
We can agonize all day long about those who have contempt for us, while neglecting those relationships that would be sweet and endearing.
How about we leave behind those that hinder our walk with Christ and turn to those who walk on the same path with us.
Proverbs 18:24 "24 A man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
A part of accepting God's will is letting go of the relationships that do not look to Christ in all matters.
Psalm 2
1 Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
5 Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, (Jesus Christ)
Today I have begotten You.
8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
11 Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Want to keep yourself clean and pure without Christ, He will let you try, just to show you how miserably futile your efforts will be. When you are finished exalting yourself, ready to repent and trust Him, then He will begin His work in you.
Isaiah 64:6-7 "6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.…"
Anyone who thinks they are doing a great job of keeping themselves from sin, is prideful and may not even be born again.
If we are not sinning for the moment, it is not us but Christ in us Who is keeping and guiding us.
He is our strength, we have none of our own to boast about.
Philippians 4:13
"I can do all things through him who strengthens me."
See that? He strengthens us!
Deuteronomy 31:6
"Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
See that? "The Lord your God goes with you."
Isaiah 41:10
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
See that? God says, "I will strengthen you."
Isaiah 40:31
"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
See that? It is the Lord Who renews our strength.
Do we get it now? It is God we must trust not only for salvation but for everything else too. We cannot count on our own strength to get us through this life, Christ lives in us and we must trust Him.
Anyone who thinks they are keeping their salvation by being good, is missing the point entirely.
We are not saved by works nor are we kept by works. We are kept by the power of Christ because of His Work in us.
Ephesians 2:10-11
"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
We have nothing in us that is good or capable of being better than who we are, that's why Christ had to come and live in us.
He is continually cleansing us from sin until the day He comes for us.
1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:7
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."
Titus 3:5
"He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,"
God authored the scriptures above to believers! They were not for non-believers but for believers. The believers have already trusted Christ, they repented, (changed their mind), after salvation they needed to be pruned as one prunes grape vines or rose bushes. The vines and bushes grow more fruit when they have been pruned, but they have to be cut back drastically for this to happen.
This is why believers have trials, illnesses, financial difficulties, family problems, God is training us to become holier.
The message to non-believers was this:
Matthew 4:17 " 17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
To His own Children Christ said these things:
James 1:2-8 "2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.:"
Romans 5:4-6
4 And patience produces character, and character produces hope. 5 And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. He gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us.
6 When we were unable to help ourselves, at the right time, Christ died for us, although we were living against God."
The tribulation is God's last warning to turn to Him before He ends it all.
The believers need no warning such as this, that's why they will be taken out in the rapture, before the intense wrath of God comes down on those who need one more chance to see His power and their need for repentance.
All believers will continue in their faith, if someone does not, that is the proof they never belonged to God.
Matthew 7:21-23
"21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
God said you shall know them by their fruit.
Matthew 7:15-20
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Non-believers are repulsed by us, they can sense the Spirit in us. When we can't figure out why someone who doesn't know us doesn't like us, we will know the reason.
Matthew 10:21-22 "…21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone on account of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. "
You say that you are a Christian and that Christ lives in you, then ask him, not man!
Let's do things God's Way! How do we know His way? We go to His Word, the Bible, Christ is called the "Word", He is the author of the Bible, then we ask Him to show us truth, even if we must let go of the false things we have been taught.
Are we willing to ask Christ Who lives in us? If we will not ask Him, then we are walking in rebellion against Truth.
James 1:4-6 "…4 Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.…"
Why do so many people act entitled to forgiveness no matter how much they remain in sin? The answer is simple, they have been trained to believe that everyone has to forgive them no matter how wickedly they act.
It's a lie from the devil and manages to enable the evil man, even allowing the culture as a whole to beat up on the victim, guilting them into forgiveness, even though no recompense has been made toward them.
The victim is bludgeoned while evil wins when it is not thwarted!
Yes, you heard it here, I am against the evil doers and for the victims of those evil doers.
Satan loves it when the innocent people are ruined by the wicked and the wicked get away with it freely.
Forgiveness without confession is an abomination, it brings the wrong message that God winks at sin and no one gets punished. This mentality only serves to bless and facilitate evil, while burdening the victims. The victims are not comforted, but the evil doer is, how sick and twisted is that? VERY!
So many "Christians don't even read the Bible and those that do, develop false doctrine by twisting or removing from it's context to make the words say what they want them to mean.
The psychology of forgiveness is a good example. Many people believe the false doctrine of forgiveness without confession. They have labeled others as "unforgiving" , when the offender is not sorry, as though forgiveness motivates the offender to feel sorry. There may be rare instances when someone feels guilty when we forgive them superficially, however that is an anomaly, very different from the normal response.
Mankind tends to feel empowered to continue in evil when others enable them by requiring nothing of them. God requires confession of the sin to be forgiven, He operates this way with mankind and expects us to do the same with one another.
Isaiah 26:10 "10 Though the wicked is shown favor, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD."
All we have to do to see this principle, is observe what has happened to our culture as a whole. As a culture we have been taught to "let it all go", as though pretending the sin does not exist will make it just go away, a sort of burying our head in the sand, if we don't see it, perhaps it really doesn't exist.
The idea that if we just keep forgiving the offender over and over again, they will suddenly see how awful they are and begin to be nice. The problem with that theory is that it is not Biblical and does not produce anything good in the offender.
Albert Einstein once said this: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.
The forgiveness referred to by Christ, 70 X 7, did not mean we forgive unconfessed sin. Christ said, "if they come" to ask forgiveness, that was the condition.
Luke 17:3 " 3 Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and IF HE REPENTS, forgive him"
All of Scripture must be interpreted in terms of the rest of the Bible. Christ does not forgive those who will not confess, and we do not do any sinner a favor by allowing them to believe they can get away with anything without challenge, it merely perpetuates the sin and even empowers them to continue more deeply into that sin, they even begin to indulge in other sin.
The reason we have jails and prisons is to show the criminal that their behavior is not acceptable. This is also the reason we do not forgive unrepentant hearts, their sin is not forgiven by God or us, unless they have confessed it and want to be changed by God. We have no right to forgive a person of a sin God has not forgiven them.
God has a standard that is best for everyone, He requires confession, it is a form of cleansing, and ultimately leads to a change of attitude that leads to changing behavior. If someone will not confess they remain stubborn. One who confesses is the one who has a true heart toward growing and changing and most of all, it is a show of love toward the one they confess to. No confession, no love, that's how it works.
It is easier to forgive others without confession, easier for us and easier for the offender, no one learns anything and we feel peaceful, basically nothing good comes out of it.
It is disturbing to me when Christians apply pressure to an innocent party to forgive someone who is not sorry and continues to torment them.
It is good to take things to their logical extreme when deciding right from wrong. How many of you would release a serial killer because we should forgive him. That would be ludicrous wouldn't it! Anyone who has murdered many people cannot be trusted to refrain from doing it again just because the innocent parties were silly enough to forgive him. If the killer is repentant, then he will want to serve his time and pay the debt. The killer who is not repentant, will without doubt continue their sin, forgiveness toward them is nothing, it doesn't change him nor does it do anything for his victims.
Are we willing to do things God's way, even if it means we will lose friends and family over it? Who comes first, Christ or man?
Our culture has done away with all forms of spanking, calling it bad. Using the rod to train a child is God's way, but our culture condemns what God said was good. Just as our culture demands forgiveness before confession, the opposite of what God teaches. In the last days people will come against God's principles and actually believe it is good.
Feelings are less than nothing, but our culture elevates them to special status. Just because we feel better that we "say" we forgive someone, does not mean we have solved anything. Bitterness is not predicated on how we feel, it is a choice. We do not have to be bitter because we cannot forgive a perpetrator. He is not forgiven because he is not sorry, it's all on him.
Believers pray for the unrepentant, but we cannot have a relationship with them, until the Lord changes their heart and they are deeply grieved over their sin. That may not take away their consequences, but it does take away their sin. A killer who has repented and trusted Christ will go to heaven, but he should still pay his debt to society, through the death penalty. If he is a believer and dies in the chamber, then he will go straight to heaven. That's why we want those on death row to hear the gospel, that when they leave this life they will go to God.
Isaiah 5:20 "20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes And clever in their own sight!…"
Psychology has done more to harm the understanding of Biblical principles than any other single entity. I say entity because it is the devil behind these deceptions, they have managed to pervert the ways of God in favor of human methods that are either of little value of of negative effect.
Isaiah 35:8
"A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it."
Sadly the modern church has thrown out the ways of God in favor of the perverted and ineffective ways of man, orchestrated by the lies of the devil.
1 John 2:6
"the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked."
Psalm 27:11
"Teach me Your way, O LORD, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes."
Each believer must ask God to show them truth, ALL truth, willing to toss aside everything they were taught by man to obey Christ.
Yep, it's quite a challenge, that most will disregard and discard.
