I became aware of my ignorance and naïveté this week when I watched a video of people who know the Bible and yet made a conscious choice to publicly slander and demean someone they should instead esteem and protect. I felt physically sick as I realized they thought they were standing up for God and defending his truth. Their blindness crushed me.
Normally, I would lambast the sinners—to be the bully in return and justify it as standing up for the oppressed. But my sincere shock that people who know God would make such a deliberate choice to be so cruel has humbled me, and has had me crying out to God for mercy.
Am I any different from these perpetrators? Why am I hurt by their words instead of standing beside them and adding more insults?
So I ask for your forgiveness.
To all who have been hurt by those claiming to speak in Jesus’ name. For the pain I have caused directly and for that caused by others’ decisions for sin, forgive us.
Forgive me for wanting to be right more than wanting to love.
Forgive me for not standing up for justice and for choosing not to engage when people are hurt.
Forgive me for using my tongue for the sinful pleasure of insults rather than for encouraging and building others up in holiness.
Forgive me for my lack of patience and lack of hope for those who continually choose sin.
Forgive me for choosing to malign and oppress instead of choosing faith, hope and love.
Forgive me for being blind to extraordinary sin in my own life and to sin all around me.
I pray we can see Jesus bleeding on the cross, carrying our individual and corporate sin.
Let us believe we are free from sin’s pull.
Let us believe we can forgive as we have been forgiven.
Let us believe we can have new life in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and can leave this hatred and vehemence behind. Let us throw off this ugliness, known and unknown, so we can run together with perseverance toward the Love of God as seen in Jesus, the anointed king.
May we live the life of Jesus each day as we serve one another and see each person we meet as another facet of the infinite dimension of our Creator and Father.
May we have eyes to see Jesus as he truly is.
May we love like he loved us, giving ourselves as a sacrifice for each person on the earth.
May we choose this day whom we will serve.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Great I AM.
Normally, I would lambast the sinners—to be the bully in return and justify it as standing up for the oppressed. But my sincere shock that people who know God would make such a deliberate choice to be so cruel has humbled me, and has had me crying out to God for mercy.
Am I any different from these perpetrators? Why am I hurt by their words instead of standing beside them and adding more insults?
So I ask for your forgiveness.
To all who have been hurt by those claiming to speak in Jesus’ name. For the pain I have caused directly and for that caused by others’ decisions for sin, forgive us.
Forgive me for wanting to be right more than wanting to love.
Forgive me for not standing up for justice and for choosing not to engage when people are hurt.
Forgive me for using my tongue for the sinful pleasure of insults rather than for encouraging and building others up in holiness.
Forgive me for my lack of patience and lack of hope for those who continually choose sin.
Forgive me for choosing to malign and oppress instead of choosing faith, hope and love.
Forgive me for being blind to extraordinary sin in my own life and to sin all around me.
I pray we can see Jesus bleeding on the cross, carrying our individual and corporate sin.
Let us believe we are free from sin’s pull.
Let us believe we can forgive as we have been forgiven.
Let us believe we can have new life in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and can leave this hatred and vehemence behind. Let us throw off this ugliness, known and unknown, so we can run together with perseverance toward the Love of God as seen in Jesus, the anointed king.
May we live the life of Jesus each day as we serve one another and see each person we meet as another facet of the infinite dimension of our Creator and Father.
May we have eyes to see Jesus as he truly is.
May we love like he loved us, giving ourselves as a sacrifice for each person on the earth.
May we choose this day whom we will serve.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Great I AM.