"BLESSED are ye, when men shall revile you, & persecute you,
& shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
REJOICE, & be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven!"
St Matthew 5:11-12
The above verses are Jesus' words. In our human minds, these words are difficult to comprehend. Yet lately, they have proven true. If you follow my last 3 posts, you know that Satan has come our way. We stuck out our Eviction Notice. We even went on vacation & thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We returned home only to have found his army to have regrouped. Surprised? Not a bit. The enemy of our souls battles on. He sees he is loosing ground. Grasping at straws, he attacks our ministry claiming that he is sent under God's authority. His opinion of our ministry rings in our ears. War is LOUD. Words hurt. It's sad to watch those that we love & care for bear arms for him, but that is their choice. That's when these scriptures flowing from our Creator's lips touch our hearts so deeply. He is the soothing balm we reach for. We pray & wrestle with the question, should we lash back out? & reason with God to remind Him of how He blessed those in the Bible that defended their bean patch. We pray & pray some more. Let go, & let God! Those are His hard words for me to hear. Hours stretch by to form days. I begin to think about the saying:
Something rises up on the inside. I began to study the word opinion. I realize that a huge difference exists between fact & opinion. The difference lies in the grounds of evidence of truth verses the lack of evidence which results in insufficient certainty. Opinions are formed based on a certain personal view & most often with a lack of knowledge. Furthermore, opinions are variable & can change endlessly. Obviously this is why opinions are dismissed in any court of law. In order to be charged with a crime, sufficient evidence must be produced. I even looked up the population of the world. As it turns out, over 7 billion people live on planet Earth every day which could produce countless opinions on any and everything imaginable. That would make a single opinion basically...well...worthless. I begin to realize just how blessed we are. God is not swayed by man's opinion. He is not caught off guard. It doesn't create chaos that He can't handle even if they are shouted from a rooftop. Opinions are nothing new to Him. Someone else's opinion does not define anyone. It actually doesn't even amount to a hill of beans. That leaves absolutely nothing for us to defend. Joy fills the hurt in our hearts. Are we blessed? Indeed we are! Abundantly, too! God has blessed our family right in the midst of this confusion. A miracle has happened that we didn't even ask Him for! He just knows our hearts & poured it out! Also, countless text messages, visits, & telephone calls of encouragement began pouring in from other Christians. Do they know what is going on? Not a clue as far as we know. God is just God. His ways are right. Following His will even when we do not understand is most imperative. He is still on the throne! Rejoicing in God right on also? Planning on it forevermore! HALLELUJAH!
My great-grandmother had a saying: "God knows what I do, and that's all that matters!"
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