FROM EXPERIENCE = LIVING AND COPING WITH INJUSTICE AND HURT (SECOND PART) – GUIDELINES – (THE RETRIBUTION OF GOD – PART 7 IN THE SERIES)
This next message continues from the last one and further provides coping strategies when in distress and depression, or facing adversity or injustice.
[3]. UNDERSTAND THE BALANCE
Trials, injustices and adversities all cause a heart searching and bring a Christian back to basics. We are children of eternity and it is in the light of eternity that all our values in the present world must be examined and appreciated. Injustice can be accepted most, and given proper perspective, when this life is balanced against eternity. Paul in one immortal statement said, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” That does not make the suffering or injustice any less hurtful but the onslaught and trial can be met with a settled faith and that makes all the difference.
You may not understand why you face such deceit or attacks, but remember Jesus is our Great High Priest who knows the situation, and He has been acquainted with unfairness and distortions and inventions and falsehoods and slanders and devilishly devised plots against the righteous of all generations. The Lord Jesus Christ will succour and intercede for you with all the compassion of the God of love. He was tempted, tried, slandered, abused, falsely accused and judged falsely by pharisaical men, so who better can understand when you are in some similar, hurting situation?
When I face hurt in injustice, there is no place for vengeful thoughts but there is for thoughts that leave it all with God because He knows us fully, and at the appropriate time, He will require your hurt at the hands of the perpetrators. Right at this time hell is full of those who are in remorse for the way they treated the children of God but it is too late. Only a fearful judgement awaits all those there. It is so sad that the gospel was neglected and God was ignored.
[4]. IS IT THE HAND OF GOD YOU ARE NOT DISCERNING?
There is another aspect here we should not overlook. We might suffer injustices, or what we might consider to be persecution, but it may be the hand of the Lord on us, gently on His children because we might have sinned and are living dishonourably. Sin is very subtle. I reckon the church at Ephesus did not realise that it had left its first love, or the church at Sardis did not realise their works were incomplete. (Revelation 2 and 3). This is where the discipline of God operates for our good.
I want to look at some verses in this matter. Some Christians, when they have hardship or injustice or affliction in their lives, blame the devil or claim it is persecution against them. What many fail to understand is that this could be the hand of the Lord on them in discipline. They may have wandered from the path and the rod of correction is being applied. I have some relevant verses on this subject I will share and comment on.
(a). {{1Corinthians 11:32 “When we are judged, WE ARE DISCIPLINED BY THE LORD in order that we may not be condemned along with the world,”}} A loving God corrects His own redeemed children, and the purpose of that is for our own good. The Lord pulls us up before we get too far away and then be unlikely to return. He disciplines us because He loves us; He does it for our growth in holiness and righteousness; He wants proper and full communion with His redeemed ones.
(b). {{Hebrews 12:5-7 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him, for THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure. GOD DEALS WITH YOU AS WITH SONS, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”}} This is a very important passage. God addresses us as His sons, and wants us to understand that any discipline is being done in love. An indifferent father or a careless one could not care less about the son’s condition and overlooks sin, but not the Lord. He disciplines us for our own good.
Verse 5 is an interesting one. It says, “My son, do not regard lightly,” and God here says we must treat the discipline of God seriously. It is a serious matter because it comes from God and is part of His correction in refining and purification. If we shrug discipline off then we are reprobates and tracking our paths away from God.
God’s discipline is not for terror, not given in harshness, but in love and mercy. I suppose some of us have seen the awful situation where a dog owner beats his dog very badly for next to nothing. A bit of time passes and the owner comes along again with a stick and you see the dog cringing in fear and anticipated torment. That is totally not what the discipline of God is.
It is an honour to be God’s sons but we need, and should expect the Lord to discipline us when we are going astray. It is because He loves us. The difficulty we can have is to decide if what we might suffer, is the discipline of God or the hand of persecution against us. We need a close walk to decipher the difference.
(c). {{Hebrews 12:11 “All discipline for the moment SEEMS NOT TO BE JOYFUL, BUT SORROWFUL, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”}} There you have God’s take on this. He knows and understands. Maybe none of us likes discipline and punishment thought some distorted people these days pursue that awful stuff. God tells us that when discipline is applied it may not be joyful, but if we learn from it them we understand it will produce righteousness and that brings peace.
(d). {{Revelation 3:19 “THOSE WHOM I LOVE, I REPROVE AND DISCIPLINE. Be zealous therefore and repent.”}} These words were spoken to the lukewarm and meaningless church at Laodicea. They lived very carelessly and were sinful. The Lord is saying that He disciplines them because He loves them. He wants to see them return to Him so He reproves them. Did it make any difference? We don’t really know but the principle is there for any member of Christ's Body on earth – God will reprove and discipline all of His children who need it because He wants to see their return and to have renewed fellowship with the ones who went astray.
The human heart is an excellent excuse maker. We make all sorts of excuses and allowances for the wayward behaviour we have, half the time not realising that there is something not complete with us. God may allow things to encounter us that we could see as injustice or some other affliction imposed on us from the outside, but in fact it is our own conduct or behaviour or attitude that is not eight and God is pulling us up so that we might examine our lives to see if there is any blockage or hindrance there to the Spirit of God.
There are some misguided Christians who like to tell people that if they suffer adversity or some difficult patch in their lives, then they have sinned. These people see problems in a Christian’s life as abnormal and those with affliction have to repent. That is so disconcerting and hurtful especially to young Christians.
In this world we will have trouble, and that is no different from the unsaved who often have similar problems. In this world troubles come because the world is sinful. The Christian is just as likely to have a bankruptcy or a serious car accident as the next person, the only difference being we have a loving, caring God who knows all about our troubles and steps in alongside us to support us.
Let us think about Job. What was his sin? Well that is what his fair-weather friends thought. They kept badgering Job trying to make him admit he had sinned and that is why these awful calamities were coming on him. However we know that he was being tested by Satan. I suppose the conclusion to this is not to jump to conclusions, but to examine ourselves carefully with a good conscience. “Keep short accounts with God,” some say. In computer terms I guess we can say, “Keep pressing the refresh button.”
I want to look at a prayer found in Daniel. This is the passage – {{Daniel 9:15-16 “and now, O Lord our God, who has brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and has made a name for Yourself as it is this day - WE HAVE SINNED, WE HAVE BEEN WICKED. O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain, for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us.”}} Daniel had not sinned, yet he identified with the sins of his people. Nehemiah did the same. Great leaders identified with their people and did not stand apart from them. It was only after the discipline of God and the hand of God against them that the people took time to assess their true selves, and the assessment was painful.
Sometimes God has to touch us to bring us back to His way because we are prone to wander and have not realised it. That is actually the grace and mercy of God that does all that for you.
God will deal with those who afflict you. In this world you will be misunderstood, and maligned and set aside because faithful children of God do not fit the world’s agenda and do not slot into its mould. Jesus told His disciples they would have tribulation in this world. Yes, the world will give us that, but always study the balance to understand the difference between the hand of God in correction, and the tribulation of the world that will come our way.
[5]. GRASP GOD’S OMNISCIENCE
Quietly realise that God knows all about it. Before the Lord left this earth He knew our needs and promised the Holy Spirit to the disciples. He spoke of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. What a wonderful promise and an abiding fact for all generations of Christians. That ministry of the Holy Spirit enabled the Christians to face all that came their way, and that often meant martyrdom. God knows and God cares.
The careless and mockers in this world disparage God in blasphemy blaming God for nor doing this or that for them, or allowing “innocent children to die”. Often those who accuse Christians of trusting in an unknown God, or something of man’s invention; who actually accuse Christians of following a callous God who disregards the suffering children of the world, are themselves abortionists. That is the world’s hypocrisy.
God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. That is also a great ministry. All that should give us blessed assurance that God is in total control. Sometimes Christians need that assurance that God really knows all about it because faith at times might falter but we serve an unchanging God who is in control. Yes, God does know all about your suffering through every day of injustice. Retribution is His and He will repay. Underneath are the everlasting arms and in them you may rest securely in every raging storm, for God knows all about it. An old hymn by Joseph Parker touches on this theme -
God holds the key to all unknown, and I am glad;
If other hands should hold the key,
Or if He trusted it to me,
I might be sad. I might be sad.
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What if tomorrow’s cares were here without its rest!
I’d rather He unlocked the day;
And as the hours swing open, say,
“My will is best. My will is best.”
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very dimness of my sight makes me secure;
For, groping in my misty way,
I feel His hand, I hear Him say,
“My help is sure. My help is sure.”
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I can not read His future plans; but this I know:
I have the smiling of His face,
And all the refuge of His grace,
While here below. While here below.
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Enough! this covers all my wants, and so I rest!
For what I can not, He can see,
And in His care I saved shall be,
For ever blest. For ever blest.
[6]. INCREASE YOUR FELLOWSHIP
Often when you feel hurt or are suffering injustice you want to crawl away by yourself and become a moping individual. This seems to be a tendency with so many, and the devil is behind it because he would want to rob you of one of the greatest strengths available to a Christian. You may feel like a very dimly glowing coal or even have allowed your outside to become black with the coldness of depression or isolation or hurtful grievance. That is the time you need to be in the midst of other Christians where the warmth and glow from them is just what you need. You know what happens to a coal when separated from others in a fire? It soon loses its heat and radiant glow. And you know what happens when it is placed back into the fire? Well it recovers as it gains from the heat of others surrounding it.
You must spend time with other Christians, and if anything, even more time than you used to spend when you are undergoing injustice, hurt or suffering. The supportive fellowship of God’s people is a strengthening factor that helps sustain you through those difficult periods. Paul spoke about not forsaking the assembling of Christians, which also means the fellowship of other Christians. Ask them to be with you; go to visit them; do things together. Above all, watch you do not cut yourself off from your spiritual brothers and sisters who are the family, which supports you in all your deep need.
Here I would like to add something for the reader who is not suffering with injustice. Try to be aware of fellow Christians in need who are finding the going tough and who are hurting. They may not even be able to ask for your help or for you to spend time with them. Sometimes the hurting causes a sort of personal ostracism. Be a friend to such a member of Christ’s body, a ministering angel in that sense. I need not say more. The body needs such people who can fulfil a small part when one member suffers. Read again and meditate upon those remarkable verses in {{1Corinthians 12:22-27 “On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body, which we deem less honourable, on these we bestow more abundant honour, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness, whereas our seemly members have no need of it. God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honour to that member which lacked, that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. IF ONE MEMBER SUFFERS, ALL THE MEMBERS SUFFER WITH IT. If one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”}}
Part 3 of these coping strategies for people suffering adversity or injustice will follow on in the next posting.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
