Have you ever been faced with a situation where someone has done you serious harm? Did you experience an initial desire to strike back? The natural reaction might include a deep resentment that can lead to a long lasting grudge that could very well harm yourself. Harboring grudges is always destructive to the well being of the one who is not willing to forgive.
On several occasions during my adult years I have faced such trying times. Before I met and embraced my Savior these occasions caused me to suffer from my dwelling on those hurts. After I received Jesus, the Holy Spirit gave me a defense against my own weakness to repay evil with evil. I first noticed that God had truly entered my life and gave me a spirit of forgiveness that was genuine. My reaction to these attacks was to show genuine love for my “enemies” by treating them with kindness and respect. In the greatest test in my life those “enemies” are now my dear friends. I did nothing more than to treat them with respect and a friendly attitude. I take no credit for this because that was not my nature, it was a gift of grace from God through the Holy Spirit.
Later as I studied the Word, I discovered a passage of scripture that goes like this; “ If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.
Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.” Romans 12:20-21
When we live for Christ we sometimes will be “attacked” by some who simply do not understand our good intentions, then they “attack” us in many ways because of our Faith. We must rejoice in that type of suffering for it is foretold by Jesus that this would happen. When Jesus said the we must take up our CROSS and follow Him, He wasn’t
referring to sickness and disease but rather the suffering that we would suffer for following Him.
May we then be glad when we are taken to task for doing good and LOVE OUR ENEMIES. In this way we are obeying Jesus. In this way some will be led to follow Jesus by our love them and sharing Jesus by example.
My reward for loving my enemies has been to witness those adversaries becoming my friends and returning my love, and in some cases becoming true Christians.
3 comments:
I am facing a giant...you have no idea how much I needed this word Mr. S
Daddy,
WhenI was just a teenager, you were teaching a message on forgivnes and you forever changed my life....
The Lords Prayer says "Forgive me as I FORGIVE"
when I you said that we are actually praying for GOD NOT to FORGIVE ME if I DON'T forgive someone who has hurt me....
WOW!!!!
It is difficult in the flesh, so we need to get back on our knees daily.
Thanks Daddy!
Love,
Dee
Hello Mr. Silanskas,
I want to send you a thank you message for the "Trickle Down" blessing that God, you and Mrs. Silanskas brought into this world. Then, as most blessings do, your blessing found someone elses blessing and they got together to create, through God's help, even more blessings. The blessing I am referring to is your Dianne blessing that joined together with the John Garvis blessing. Two wonderful people that the community most certainly is thankful for. Then on top of that they worked together bringing two more little blessings named Greg and Sarah into the world and they shared a blessing with me. Those two mailed me a music CD from Rick Silanskas (another one of your blessings) titled "Swept Away". Amazing how I have been "Trickle Down" blessed by you, Mrs. Silanskas, John, Dianne, Greg, Sarah and Rick when the only one I have met is Dianne. An old friend of mine, who is now in heaven, always used to say "God is always good, God is good all ways." Brian
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