When you are INSULTED, CHOOSE TO PRAY

When You Are Insulted, Choose to Pray
by Tom Holladay

"Pray for those who insult you." Luke 6:28 (GWT)
When it comes to being insulted, there is something Jesus said in Matthew 5 that can make us scratch our heads. "If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek also" (Matthew 5:39 NCV). Huh?
In order to understand this verse, we need to understand the culture of that day. In biblical times, a slap was not an act of violence. It was a backhanded slap indicating an insult. When you slapped someone on the cheek, you were insulting that person. Many times the person would slap back with another insult.
People insult you to gain control. If they can get you to insult them back, you've given them the higher ground and it puts them in control.
What Jesus was saying in Matthew 5 is to just let it go. Don't play their game. Give the situation to God.
It takes a lot of strength not to insult someone in return. So how do you do it?


Remember what God says about you. No matter what negative thing that person says, remember that God says he loves you. God made you, and he has a plan and purpose for your life. God's opinion is more important than any other person's opinion.

Instead of retaliating, God wants us to break the cycle in a different way. "Don't retaliate when people say unkind things about you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God wants you to do, and he will bless you for it" (1 Peter 3:9 NLT). How do you return an insult with a blessing? Pray. "Pray for those who insult you" (Luke 6:28 GWT).
How do you pray for somebody who has hurt you? King David, a man after God's own heart, prayed for people who insulted and rejected him. You can find many of those prayers in the book of Psalms. What I love about his prayers is that he begins many of them by telling God his honest feelings about the people who hurt him.
That's how our prayers should start. Don't pretend to be pious; God knows what is on your mind anyway. Tell God how you honestly feel. Admit you are struggling to pray for the other person, but then ask God to bless him or her. Honest and humble prayers have the power to make a difference in this world.

"Love is knowing God, and happiness is sharing Him with others".
Love one another: for love is of God".
John 4:7

Betty (Betts)

Recipe for a Happy New Year Anonynous

Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from old memories of bitterness, rancor and hate, cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past—have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time. Cut these months into thirty or thirty-one equal parts.
Do not attempt to make up the whole batch at one time (so many persons spoil the entire lot this way) but prepare one day at a time.
Into each day put equal parts of faith, patience, courage, work(some people omit this ingredient and so spoil the flavor of the rest), hope, fidelity,liberality, kindness, rest (leaving this out is like leaving the oil out of the salad dressing— don’t do it), prayer, meditation, and one well-selected resolution. Put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cupful of good humor.
I trust that you all use this recipe with love. This would be your best ever.

Blessings always!!!!
Betty

"The Lord lift up His countenance on you, and
give you peace......numbers 6:26

Betty (Betts)

Christ in ME, By Max Lucado

Like Mary, you and I are indwelt by Christ.

Find that hard to believe? How much more did Mary? No one was more
surprised by this miracle than she was. And no one more passive than
she was. God did everything. Mary didn't volunteer to help. What did
she have to offer? She offered no assistance.

And she offered no resistance. Instead she said, "Behold, the bond-
slave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word" (Luke
1:38).

Unlike Mary, we tend to assist God, assuming our part is as
important as his. Or we resist, thinking we are too bad or too busy.
Yet when we assist or resist, we miss God's great grace. We miss out on
the reason we were placed on earth-to be so pregnant with heaven's
child that he lives through us. To be so full of him that we could say
with Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." (Gal.
2:20)
What would that be like? To have a child within is a miracle, but to have Christ within?
To have my voice, but him speaking.
My steps, but Christ leading.
My heart, but his love beating in me, through me, with me.
What's it like to have Christ on the inside?
To tap his strength when mine expires or feel the force of heaven's fires raging, purging wrong desires.
Could Christ become my self entire?
So much him, so little me that in my eyes it's him they see.
What's it like to a Mary be?
No longer I, but Christ in me.
"Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you"

Selah!
Betty(Betts)