It is so incredibly hard to bless those who persecute me. You're probably asking yourself, "Who could possibly be persecuting her?" We have this vision of persecution and sometimes it jumps all the way to a torturous, captive type persecution. Or maybe it skips to severe bullying that can occur. Or you could hop right over to the abusive, beating spouse, sibling, child- yes, they can all be real things spouses aren't the only ones who abuse family. If none of those extremes or semi-extremes are a part of what we believe the average person's life to be, such as perhaps mine, then how can I say people persecute me?
Persecuting is being subject to unfair or cruel treatment, pestering, harassment, oppression.
So, who does this to me? Strangers perhaps. Seriously. It may be an extremely low level of persecution- but being treated unfairly in anyway can often cause us to CURSE others- those who we are perceiving as treating us unfairly. It happens all the time. Sometimes all it takes is a supposed nasty look from a complete stranger that can set us to thinking ill will towards that stranger. Driving is a huge stranger induced persecution we seem to all face. We curse complete strangers as they cut us off on the road, or drive too slow, or honk their horns at us unnecessarily, or sit at a light that's turned green We yell, sometimes just silently, "Go!" or "Watch out!" And we say those things defensively, angrily, we are in affect cursing others.
This holds true for anytime we are put out by a request someone makes of us- co-workers, bosses, customers, friends, neighbors, family and so on. This holds true for when someone is having a bad day and take their bad day out on others. We do this, we do it all the time and we shrug it off as being a part of life. We make excuses for it, we tell ourselves it's not so bad.
We perceive persecution, and we persecute others in so many small ways and none of those ways are things to be overlooked. We must seek forgiveness when we persecute others with our actions, demeanor, attitudes that are not of God. We must seek to forgive all others who persecute us with their actions, demeanors, attitudes that are not of God. We are to BLESS those who persecute us, remember? Bless and curse not!
I said it's so hard to bless those who persecute me, but most of that persecution stems from my perception of being put out, my own selfish, impatience, negative attitude, and so on. I need to seek forgiveness in so many ways, and I need to learn to BLESS all those who I perceive as persecutors, however slight that persecution may be. Christ in me can do this. He blessed those who persecuted Him and He never deserved any persecution at all whatsoever. So even if my self issues aren't always the cause of a perceived persecution, and maybe there are legitimate persecutions- even then I really have to bless those who are persecuting me. Deserved, undeserved, true, or just perceived as true none of it matters, what matters is BLESSING others, ALL OTHERS, and yes, especially those we tend to believe are undeserving, they deserve it the most. God, please, help us! All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever! Amen!
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(Excerpt Ro. 12 E.J. Waggoner) 1800's)
How to Treat Persecutors.
Rom 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not
To curse does not necessarily always mean to use profane language, to swear. To curse means to speak ill. It is the opposite of bless, which means to speak well of. Sometimes men persecute according to law, and sometimes they persecute without any legal warrant; but whether it is "due process of law" or mob violence, no hard words are to be used against those who do it. On the contrary, they are to be spoken well of.
One can not do this without the Spirit of Christ, who prayed for his betrayers and murderers, and who did not venture to bring railing accusation even against the devil. Jude 9. To hold persecutors up to contempt is not according to God's instruction.
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