the entire personality; it is one of the factors bringing about ill health. In somnia is frequently due to emotional conflict arising from hostility. Alcohol ism may be traced often to buried hos tilities, as are high blood pressure, ul cers, and hives, in some cases.” Unfortunately there are some who permit their personal hostilities to find expression even within the Church, to the extent that personality differences generate into full orbed church fights which give occasion for the expression of group hostilities. So we need to ex amine carefully the reason for our feel ings of anger and offense. Secondly we need to remember that even if we are genuinely offended, our attitude ought to be one of understand ing and forgiveness. It is said of our Lord “when he was reviled, he reviled not again.” We are told not to be strik ers (I Tim. 3:3), to resist not evil (Mt. 5:39). And that vengeance upon our enemies is rightfully our Lord’s per- rogative (Deut. 32:35). How much grief and unpleasantness we would save if we simply made an honest ef fort to understand the reasons behind the actions of others. We do not know the tensions under which others live, the complicated problems that another might be facing which perhaps has giv en rise to an offensive remark or ac tion. Most of us usually do not really seek to understand. In Ephesians chapter 4, verses 31 and 32, we read “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” In the prayer which Jesus gave His disciples we arc told to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” The parable of the unjust steward found in Mt. 18:21-35 teaches us that forgiveness when we have been actually wronged or offended is a Christlike virtue to be cultivated. Indeed we learn from Mt. 5:23-25 that when we do not forgive, the Holy Spirit is grieved, our commun ion with the Lord is broken and our
spiritual life dwarfed and warped. It seems so hard to control our anger, to understand, to forgive. It is precisely here that prayer comes into the pic ture. It is indeed difficult to forgive in fact, in some cases it is absolutely im possible, unless we learn the blessed ness of taking even our hostilities to the Lord in prayer; asking Him to bring us to thé place where we can truly pray for the individual whom we feel has “despitefully used” us or of fended; asking God to root out all the seeds of anger and ill feeling that would defeat and dwarf us in our spir. itual life; asking God to direct us in giving expression to those feelings, in healthy and constructive ways. Our Lords’ attitude during the cruel agony of the cross when He prayed for his persecutors, “Father forgive them . . .” indicates that He both understood the motivation that was driving them to crucify Him, and that He forgave. It was the realization of this truth that enabled many of the first century mar tyrs to “revile not again,” but to pray, through the cruelties of the arena and the torch, for the very ones who were seeking to destroy them. But how do you handle your hostilities? Such improper direction of our feelings of hostility is a further expression of the flesh, and Paul reminds us that as be lievers that when we are walking in the spirit it is not necessary to fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). But, perhaps you say, “I live under com pletely impossible circumstances. No one understands me, I can’t possibly keep sweet in the face of all of the pressures which I face.” Paul points out in the Epistle to the Romans that the answer is the indwelling person of Jesus Christ who is completely adequate to meet us at the point of our need in every circumstance. May we experi ence the effective working of the mighty promise given in II Cor. 3:5 “Our sufficiency is of Christ.” The dis ciples asked of Jesus . . . “Teach us to pray.” Today let us ask him “Teach us to pray for those who despitefully use us.” 13
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter