Do Good at All Cost

Verses:  Matthew 5:38-42

My thoughts about the verses:

Have you ever been in a situation where someone is doing hurtful things to you?  It might be physical, emotional or spiritual.  Deep down inside we want to strike back.  We want them to pay for the hurt that they have done to them.  We spend a lot of our time living in anger.  We are so hurt that we take it out on people that haven’t done anything to us.

I know that I have personally have done this multiple times in my life.  I am mad because something that one person does but without meaning to I take it out on someone else.  Even worse I spend days trying to figure out how to get revenge on the person that has hurt me.  The sad part is when I do this it actually makes me feel guilty. 

Jesus wants us to not plot revenge against someone.  In reality we should be praying for them.  We need to ask God to take the hurt away from us.  We need to ask God to help the person that is hurting us to realize what they are doing.

People have taken this very literally.  They believe if someone has hurt us we should not fight back at all.  We should stand back and let them hurt us over and over again.  Yet, there are times that we have to speak out against people that have hurt us.  We have to understand that there are some kinds of hurt that need to be stopped. We need to understand that people who do things that hurt us may also do things that are hurting others.  There are times that we have to stand up and fight back by telling what we know. 

We need to work with authorities to make sure that someone does not cause harm to others or hurt us again.  Physical and emotional abuse is something that you or no one else deserves to live with.  God will not judge us if we make sure that they are stopped because we tell those in authority (police) about the abuse.  God doesn’t judge us if we take a stand in court asking for justice.  Yet, at the same time we need to forgive the person so that we can live without anger.  We need to forgive them so we can take a step toward healing.

Now, I want to turn to spiritual abuse.  Many of us face this each and every day.  Ever since the Supreme Court stated that all same sex couples have the same right to marry there has been a lot of both positive and negative points of view.  Yet, some of the people who consider themselves “Righteous” Christians are actually spiritually hurting people.  Their spiritual abuse is hurting them to the point that they do not want anything to do with God.

I have a hard time accepting the county clerk in my Grandmother’s hometown standing up and saying he isn’t going to do his job.  It hurts deep down inside because of the way some of my family respects me for who I am.  I am not sure how many of them know that I am actually a Lesbian yet they have never treated me with anything but Godly love.  Yes, Casey County Kentucky is a very rural county.  Many of the people are very religious. 

I almost went to the rally that was in support of Same Sex Marriage.  Yet, I realized that I couldn’t take the pain if any of my family was on the other side standing up for the County Clerk.  I want to think that they would never intentionally spiritually hurt me.  Yet, I know if I had seen any of them protesting against same sex marriage that I would feel rejected by my family.

Churches are also guilty of spiritual hurt.  Many Christians do not want to hurt others.  They know that they are representatives of Jesus Christ.  They accept that they are not perfect and that is only through the saving grace of God that they would not be saved from their own sins.  Yet, there are other Christians that have spiritually hurt people to the point that they want nothing to do with God.

I know how that feels.  This week has been a very emotional week.  I had to watch someone that I considered my mentor.  He was someone that I wanted to grow up and be like.  Once again state that I am a sinner.  I really wanted people to see that spiritual hurt can spread to other feelings and actions.  I know for me when I was spiritually hurt as a very young adult I was one of those young people that thought that I had no reason to live.  I felt that I was unworthy.  When someone you trust tells you that your lifestyle is a choice that you need to ask God to change was devastating.  I felt that all the things that I had done to serve God was useless.

Yet, I had one man that saved my life.  He was someone that was spiritual and also one of my professors in college.  He saw the signs of the depression and was afraid that I was on the wrong path.  He made arrangements for me to see his pastor.  This man taught me that I was a Child of God.  He taught me that my lifestyle wasn’t a choice.  He taught me that God did not create anything wrong.  Therefor I being a Lesbian was part of God’s plan.  I wish I could remember his name because I would like to tell him how much he helped heal me spiritually.

We need to make sure that we do not hurt others.  We need to make sure that we do not retaliate when people do us wrong.  We need to remember to pray for those that hurt us.  We need to accept that there are times that the only way to stop someone from hurting someone is to make sure they go away to jail.  The biggest thing to remember is that we can do the same things to other if we fall for causing people to feel bad about them.  We have to stop patterns of anger by asking God to be in our life. 

We need to make sure our churches and other Christians do not represent the way that we feel.  We need to make sure that we show the world that we are Christians that accept all.  We are called to do this and we must follow the plan of Jesus.  We need to teach and not judge.  We need to open our doors and hearts so that people can come to accept Jesus.  We need to help heal people through our love so they can heal spiritually.

Prayer:

Dear God we thank you for your love.  We thank you for helping us when others are hurting us.  We praise you for giving us the gift of salvation.  We ask that you help us keep from hurting others.  Help us let go of our anger.  Help us speak up when emotional and physical abuse our hurting ourselves or others.  Help us not hurt people spiritually.  Help us open our arms to help those that have been hurt.  In the name of the Savior we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Are you holding onto anger because the pain someone has put you through?  Are you causing pain to others?  Are you being a stumbling block for people to accept God?  Are you helping others recover from physical, emotional and spiritual hurt?  What action do you need to do today to stop violence in this world?