Thursday, 16 October 2008
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Will God Punish the People That Hurt Me?
Lately I've been thinking a lot about God's promises to me...specifically how He promises to be my vindicator and also promises to be a God of mercy. I got the vindication part down early--God will set right any wrongs because He is a God of justice--so I don't necessarily need or should do any thing in the natural. But the whole mercy thing has puzzled me. If God is indeed merciful, then how can He vindicate me? What if the people who have wronged me never get "dealt with", then how am I vindicated? If I am supposed to show mercy to others, how can I protect myself from people who mean me harm?
These questions plagued me every time something bad happened to me and so in turn it was hard for me to decide to forgive people and also hard for me to turn situations over to God to let Him handle it. This is something that I still struggle with, so for anyone who happens to read, please pray for me as I pray for myself to release this stumbling block from my life. I am learning in my therapy sessions that I have a distorted view of myself and also I am very hard on myself when I make mistakes; in turn, I tend to be hard on others.
Anyway, I don't know if I had a divine revelation about this or what but I think I understand now. First, God does not do things the way I want Him to do it all the time. Therefore, my idea of vindication may not, (ok, does not) line up with what His plan is. In this light, it is indeed true that God can be both my vindicator and be merciful. Vindication doesn't necessarily mean He's going to strike everybody down as soon as they screw up. My "enemies" may never be "dealt with" in my lifetime but God can vindicate me simply by allowing what they intended for harm to work out for my good. In light of this new found understanding, my prayers and my thought process are changing for the better.
Does this mean that I am to let people mistreat me? No, I don't believe that it does. Merciful doesn't mean naive or gullible. But it will change the way I handle these things--to walk in love rather than anger. Don't get me wrong, I know this isn't going to happen overnight, but I'm glad that now I'm in a place to acknowledge my weaknesses and not condemn myself in the process. I am more confident than ever that God has started a good work in me and is faithful to complete it.
Have you ever shown mercy, only to get mistreated?
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Comments (18)
Mercy either leads you to benefit from something or it leads people to use you for the (not literally) rest of your life.
Who came first? God or the human race?
Learn to depend more on yourself and your own good judgment..do not purely depend on God. (A little like don't blindly believe what the government promises).
Vindication will happen on Judgement Day.
Perhaps God will vindicate us and be merciful Father, so that when we recall back, we find we no longer hold any grudge in our hearts..
So he is merciful in allowing us to forgive, and he is also merciful then, to them.
(Curious--where is God as a vindicator stated in the Bible?)
God has already vindicated you for every wrong. Jesus received the horrible punishment that the people who hurt you deserve. If they don't accept His sacrifice, they will be punished. If they do accept God's forgiveness, you are still vindicated because Jesus took every lash and bruise and every bit of mental torment that those people deserve.
The things that happened to you mattered so much that Someone had to pay. Because God is infinitely merciful, He paid. Not only did He pay for the things those people did to you, but He also paid for every hurt you have inflicted on someone else.
You are eternalliy vindicated. Look at the nails and the crown of thorns and the bloody back, beaten beyond recognition. Think of the torment of separation from the Father. The people who hurt you could never actually pay for what they did to you, not even if they were punished forever. Their crimes are too great for that, our sins are too great for that; we can never pay fthe price for them. The only One who actually could pay fully for what happened to you did so when He gave His life 2,000 years ago.
You are vindicated, now and forever. The slain Lamb is your risen protector. God bless you as work through these things with His grace and help.
Not if they repent, and He will punish you if you don't forgive.
@simpLyxme@xanga - i'm referring to romans 8:31-34...i have the new american standard translation which substitutes the word "justifies" for "vindicates"...it's essentially the same thing
@Pickwick12@xanga - thank you for the kind words; i really appreciate them!
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.
Try to look at it from God's perspective for a moment; a few verses may help:
"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2)
Did Jesus die for your sins, while you were His enemy (see Romans 5:8-10)?
Did Jesus die for just your sins or the sins of everyone in the world?
Does that include the sins of the people who mistreated you?
Next verse:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
(Notethe words "any" and "all".) If God had his way, would everyone who sinned get what they deserve, or would they repent and be forgiven?
One more:
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. (Matthew 6:12)
"As" means "in the same way as." When you pray this, you are saying, "God, I want you to forgive my sins in exactly the same way I forgive the people who sin against me." (Followed, in my case in the past, by "Um... where am I and why am I in this hand basket?"
)
I know, this is exactly what you don't want to hear when you're the one who's been mistreated. I've totally been there. But "mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13). God wants to forgive the people who mistreat Him; only if they refuse His mercy will He be forced to deal out His judgment.
"What if the people who have wronged me never get "dealt with", then how am I vindicated?" Perhaps in the same way God is vindicated when He forgives your sins against Him.
I think you would be delighted to read the book What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey. Highly recommended.
In addition to the many other excellent verses already shared:
When he [Jesus] was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. I Peter 2:23.
I also struggle with being hard on myself and others. And I'm in the middle of revisiting that. We can only show mercy to ourselves and others as we really understand and appropriate the love and mercy of God in our own lives. And then, only as we allow the Spirit of Christ to work in and through us can we live out Matthew 5:43-48 and Romans 12:9-21. Apart from Christ in us it is impossible; our flesh fights forgiving and loving and overlooking wrongs and being merciful. We want justice/vengeance/payback and the like. And I'm now seeing that as I eased up on praying for "my enemies," I have allowed Satan to get a foothold and the root of bitterness (Heb. 12:15) had begun to take root and grow. So now I'm working to dig it out (again). It's something we must be diligent in and may have to pray blessing and forgiveness over those who have hurt us for the rest of our lives, just as we pray for daily bread and our own daily forgiveness.
Will be praying for you,
Karen
@misssunflower - You're welcome! I've been there with this issue and sometimes still am. It's a very, very tough one. I'm glad He's with us through it.
maybe i'm wrong but you may need to seperate urself from flesh and spirit... if you feed th flesh more then it will win if you feed the spirit more then spirit will win...
and forget about wither God will punish them... that shoud be leastof ur worries... look at it this way.. as people ahve wronged you, you probly have wrong the, which means since God is avenger of just he would have to punish you, becuz you have wronged others... and i dont think that was God's trube meaning... we neeed to quit fill in the blanks for ourselves..... it measn that he will punish the people who persecuted you, not ur blood sister/brother... but those who laugh at you and mock you becuz you choose to love the Lord...
@naguyin@xanga -
"Mercy either leads you to benefit from something or it leads people to use you for the (not literally) rest of your life.
Who came first? God or the human race?
Learn to depend more on yourself and your own good judgment..do not purely depend on God. (A little like don't blindly believe what the government promises)."
<li class="itemtimestamp">10/16/2008 12:40 PM
<li class="itemsubmitter">naguyin@xanga (message)
If you did that, you're then ignoring God's will. Major fundamental facet of Christianity is about surrendering to God, and your message is contrary to that.
I agree with karen sugguest .......> god forgive us .so we
can also forgive other . we need bread on a daily and need god
power to strength us to forgiveness .
" '...Revenge is mine,' thus saith the Lord." Romans 12:19. Just don't forget that it's not always in the way that we expect it to be.
This is helped tremendously. Thank you. But would you say he's now vindicated you ?
Or do you believe he's still working on it ?
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