The Highway to Destination? Joyful!(tm)

Happy Thursday to you! It’s a great day for a sacrifice of righteousness on our way to Destination? Joyful! ™ Grab your coffee and let’s go explore what this particular sacrifice costs!
So when we began this particular sacrifice, I had an opportunity to offer Him up a sacrifice of righteousness by being silent after feeling attacked and ridiculed by someone I love in front of someone I love. I failed in that test and the very thing I was teaching someone not to do, I DID!
This next opportunity to offer a sacrifice of righteousness involved the same principle but with a bit more depth, and while I wasn’t prepared for the circumstance to happen, I was prepared to step back before moving forward in deed and in words.
It’s kind of funny, because the very thing I had drawn my line about in this second circumstance, I was being tested in! God’s refining fire is so painfully brilliant at times it throws me to my face in humility and causes me to beg for the water of His Word. Yes, humility is a necessary pool to bathe in, especially as I prepare to go into the trenches with others who are struggling with hurts, habits and hang-ups. I must not forget where I came from and how I came to Who I came!
There are so many one-liner lessons in the two situations that have happened back to back in my journey, but the loudest one echoing in the nooks of my heart and gushing out into my whole being is found in 1^st Peter 5:6: “Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time”: in other words, when I feel others have wronged me, I don’t need to be the teacher of the lesson I think they need to learn. The cost is too great! Think about it like this: When a fire starts, do I add a match, or walk away and thus let it go out?
I love what He promises in 1^st Peter 5:7 when we do just that: “casting all your cares on Him for He cares for you.” After all, if I am a Christian who does not love the unlovable, then I am without the greatest gift, love which grows joy!
Oh, friends, He is so good to hold us accountable and I am not quite giggling as I realize He’s done just that: held me accountable to the very thing I had shared with this person on so many occasions in our friendship: Just because someone verbally slaps us with their perceptions, doesn’t give us permission to slap them back with ours. There is no unity in that. In fact, love is the framework for unity and truly listening adds shades of beauty to beautiful to describe but seldom seen. If all I am able to do is concentrate on defending what’s being said, then I am not focused with a heavenly perspective of unity. Rather, I have missed what’s not being said and forgotten about the One who will defend me when it’s all said and done.
Having a heavenly perspective in an earthly battle will keep us from stepping out of the bigger picture, which is unity in and for the Bride of Christ, the ultimate Kingdom of which we are headed. Oh, to be a kingdom builder and not a building destroyer.
Ask yourself: Can I agree to disagree, in love, for the greater good of Him?
I thought I would get into the cost of this sacrifice, but at the risk of staying on His platform longer than I am welcome, I will let you go. Thank you so much for joining me for our coffee hour and I truly pray that the lessons I am striving to learn will become preventative medicine to your soul and in your journey with Him!
We WILL wrap up this second sacrifice next week and then get to our October’s WOW!
In His grip,

Evinda

Me, Turn the other Cheek? From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Thanks for joining me for this search of joy. Oh, how I long to stay on the destination to joyful! Grab your coffee and let’s go explore more about this second sacrifice, a sacrifice of righteousness.
So I left off with a baffling and mind-boggling question and/or concept, one that is too hard to digest without our spiritual selves, so please remember that component as we dig to understand what in the world Jesus is telling us in Matthew 5:38! The question: Is He telling us to stand face to face with the one who slaps us on the cheek and offer the other side?
According to Matthew Henry, that is exactly what He’s saying! He says: “The plain instruction is ‘Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord’s keeping. And the sum of all is that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right principles will have most peace and comfort’.”
That may sound incredibly confusing, but oh my goodness; I just got a word picture! I hope with all my being that I can help you see it too! I’m going to apply these words to a situation that just happened, in other words, to my drama! Oh, before I do, let me tell you about something else I discovered: the “evil” that Jesus is referring to in this context is not the enemy himself, rather, the human acting in their flesh!!!!! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I feel like making the sound that the “angry birds” make on the game when they get smashed!
Now, I wouldn’t call this person who sent me to blur with one action and all their mean words evil, although their choice to do what they did felt evil. But maybe, just maybe there’s something to this verse that applies to these types of in-the-heat-of-the-moment situations. At least this verse is speaking to me ever so loudly in a soft kind of way.
Here’s something else to think about: maybe resisting evil isn’t confined to a person who is not a follower of Christ. Could it also apply to us as followers of Christ who act out of our flesh? Could resisting evil mean not reacting to it? Ugh, hindsight is always 20/20, right? If I had stood firm against what I deemed wrong/evil which was being demonstrated by someone I love, I wouldn’t have had to endure what happened next: a complete verbal slapping in front of another someone whom I love!
Let me tell you, I did not turn the other cheek to receive anymore! In fact, I spit out a mouthful of nails! You may be saying, “Well, why would you? That’s not what Jesus is saying in that verse.”
I agree; we are not to be doormats; however there is a fine line between turning the other cheek and hurling nails out of my mouth to pierce the heart of the one who hurt me! Have you ever felt like that; like all you wanted to do was strike back and hurt the one who just hurt you? The line is the line of pride!
Could it be that we are to emotionally turn away from the evil acts of those who hurt us, and face them in love, without retaliating? Could this be a sacrifice of righteousness? Oh, but I can see now how different it could have turned out, no matter how right I felt about my position and wrong about theirs because in the long run, when I’m face to face with Him, He’s not going to ask me about their side; we are going to only talk about my actions and my failure to offer a sacrifice of righteousness!
Oh, Abba, I fall short, miss the mark every day, and some days are worse than others. I thank you for your mercies that are new every morning, for your Word that works as a double-edged sword, piercing my heart and trimming away what needs to go. Help me offer up a sacrifice of righteousness, even when I don’t feel like it! When it all comes down to it, Father, what matters is my relationship with you and my relationship with others affects my relationship with you. Help me to be Christ-like to those who slap me in the face with their evil acts.
Seeking to offer a sacrifice of righteousness,



Evinda
Thanks for joining me for this search of joy. Oh, how I long to stay on the destination to joyful! Grab your coffee and let’s go explore more about this second sacrifice, a sacrifice of righteousness.
So I left off with a baffling and mind-boggling question and/or concept, one that is too hard to digest without our spiritual selves, so please remember that component as we dig to understand what in the world Jesus is telling us in Matthew 5:38! The question: Is He telling us to stand face to face with the one who slaps us on the cheek and offer the other side?
According to Matthew Henry, that is exactly what He’s saying! He says: “The plain instruction is ‘Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord’s keeping. And the sum of all is that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right principles will have most peace and comfort’.”
That may sound incredibly confusing, but oh my goodness; I just got a word picture! I hope with all my being that I can help you see it too! I’m going to apply these words to a situation that just happened, in other words, to my drama! Oh, before I do, let me tell you about something else I discovered: the “evil” that Jesus is referring to in this context is not the enemy himself, rather, the human acting in their flesh!!!!! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I feel like making the sound that the “angry birds” make on the game when they get smashed!
Now, I wouldn’t call this person who sent me to blur with one action and all their mean words evil, although their choice to do what they did felt evil. But maybe, just maybe there’s something to this verse that applies to these types of in-the-heat-of-the-moment situations. At least this verse is speaking to me ever so loudly in a soft kind of way.
Here’s something else to think about: maybe resisting evil isn’t confined to a person who is not a follower of Christ. Could it also apply to us as followers of Christ who act out of our flesh? Could resisting evil mean not reacting to it? Ugh, hindsight is always 20/20, right? If I had stood firm against what I deemed wrong/evil which was being demonstrated by someone I love, I wouldn’t have had to endure what happened next: a complete verbal slapping in front of another someone whom I love!
Let me tell you, I did not turn the other cheek to receive anymore! In fact, I spit out a mouthful of nails! You may be saying, “Well, why would you? That’s not what Jesus is saying in that verse.”
I agree; we are not to be doormats; however there is a fine line between turning the other cheek and hurling nails out of my mouth to pierce the heart of the one who hurt me! Have you ever felt like that; like all you wanted to do was strike back and hurt the one who just hurt you? The line is the line of pride!
Could it be that we are to emotionally turn away from the evil acts of those who hurt us, and face them in love, without retaliating? Could this be a sacrifice of righteousness? Oh, but I can see now how different it could have turned out, no matter how right I felt about my position and wrong about theirs because in the long run, when I’m face to face with Him, He’s not going to ask me about their side; we are going to only talk about my actions and my failure to offer a sacrifice of righteousness!
Oh, Abba, I fall short, miss the mark every day, and some days are worse than others. I thank you for your mercies that are new every morning, for your Word that works as a double-edged sword, piercing my heart and trimming away what needs to go. Help me offer up a sacrifice of righteousness, even when I don’t feel like it! When it all comes down to it, Father, what matters is my relationship with you and my relationship with others affects my relationship with you. Help me to be Christ-like to those who slap me in the face with their evil acts.
Seeking to offer a sacrifice of righteousness

Evinda