by Joyce Meyer
When we can look at people who’ve hurt us, with compassion, and pray what Jesus prayed, …Father, forgive them for they know not what they do—there’s a party that goes on inside of us.
(See Luke 23:34.)
How do you respond when someone hurts your feelings? Do you take hold of their offense and let it rob you of your joy? Do your emotions run wild and try to take control of your actions?
Oh, Jesus, Help Me!
Years ago when I was right in the middle of teaching a series on forgiveness, someone said something to me over the phone that kind of hurt my feelings. I had all the same type of emotions that most of us have when this kind of thing happens, and I had to just start praying, “God, help me, help me, help me! I’m right in the middle of teaching a series on forgiveness, God. I can’t teach them when I’m feeling mad! It’s just not going to work for me to try to teach when I’m upset. Oh, Jesus, help me!”
I decided to act right, but that didn’t help the way I felt inside because even when we choose to do what’s right, our feelings need time to catch up with our decision. It might not happen right away. We cannot lose our faith as soon as our feelings disagree with what we’ve already done in faith. You and I need to gain an understanding of our emotions.
God’s Path to Forgiveness
Luke 6 tells us what we should do when people hurt us. One morning I was reading it out loud to Dave and said, “You know what? This has got to be the hardest thing in the whole world to do.” But we don’t get out of doing something just because it’s hard to do.
In verses 27 and 28 of this passage it says, But I say to you who are listening now to Me: [in order to heed, make it a practice to] love your enemies, treat well (do good to, act nobly toward) those who detest you and pursue you with hatred, invoke blessings upon and pray for the happiness of those who curse you, implore God’s blessing (favor) upon those who abuse you [who revile, reproach, disparage, and high-handedly misuse you].
Can you believe that? We’re to pray something like, “Oh, Lord, I pray that You’d just make them so happy!” I still don’t get that, but I’m willing to do it in obedience and say, “Lord, I don’t know that I really want them to be happy, but I’ll pray that in faith anyway, because You’re telling me to bless them with Your presence. (Could You throw a little conviction in too, please?)”
Forgiveness in Action
Verse 35 instructs us to love [our] enemies and be kind and do good [doing favors so that someone derives benefit from them] and lend, expecting and hoping for nothing in return…. Let’s get practical about how to do this. If we have a coworker who gets the promotion that we’ve been believing God for, the minute we start to feel jealousy and envy, we need to go buy them a gift. It works! I’m telling you, it will work! When we do it, it breaks the power of the devil because Romans 12:21 says that we overcome evil with good. It’s absolutely true, too. I have learned this principle and it has been life-changing for me.
For example, a few years ago someone told me about a person who was doing business with our ministry and making a good deal of money because of their relationship with us. My friend happened to be at the same restaurant, seated in the next booth and overheard their conversation, which just happened to be about me. And they weren’t saying good things about me either.
As soon as I was told about it, I got so mad and started saying things like, I’m going to do this and I’m going to do that! I’m going to tell them tomorrow that they are never getting our business again! And I’m going to tell them that we found out what they were saying about me and blah, blah, blah.
In bed that night, my mind raced with all the things I wanted to do in response. Then the Holy Spirit said to me, “You’re not going to do any of those things.” He said, “No, you’re going to do what you teach. You’re going to go buy them a present, and you’re going to tell them how much you appreciate the services that they’ve given you all these years.”
Well, needless to say, because my emotions weren’t in agreement with my obedience to the Holy Spirit’s instructions, I sent someone else to buy the gifts. In my state of mind at the time, I was still very tempted to buy them gift certificates from the restaurant where they were overheard talking about me. I was thinking, Maybe if I get them gift certificates from there, they’ll know that I know. Isn’t that just like our flesh to think of these things? I was honestly hoping that God would let me give them a clue that I knew what they had done, so they would know how good I was behaving by treating them well.
What I remember most about the situation is that as soon as I started taking action to do something good for them, it just got so funny to me. I was laughing out loud in my house, all by myself. I was having my own private party because there is a joy that’s released in us when we have so much power in the Holy Spirit that no matter what anyone else does to us, they can’t steal our joy.
It’s true. When we can look at people who’ve hurt us, with compassion, and pray what Jesus prayed, …Father, forgive them for they know not what they do—there’s a party that goes on inside of us. (See Luke 23:34.)
Probably 99.9 percent of the time it’s absolutely true that people do not realize what they are doing. The person in the restaurant who was talking about me had no idea what he was doing and the position that he was putting himself in. That’s why we need to pray for them and say, “God forgive them.” Moses prayed for Miriam when she talked against him, because God inflicted her with leprosy. Yet, he responded by praying for her so she wouldn’t die.
What does God say will happen to us when we obey His Word? Luke 6:35 states, …and then your recompense (your reward) will be great (rich, strong, intense, and abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High…. God tells us that we’ll receive a reward. We will get double for our trouble if we will do things His way.
Blessing or Cursing?
Remember too, that one of the main ingredients of forgiveness is for us to bless our enemies and not curse them. Bless means “to speak well of them” and curse means “to speak evil of them.” One of the key reasons some people don’t ever work through the process of forgiveness is that they won’t shut their mouths. They will not stop talking about it and want to tell everyone they run into what so-and-so did to them. Yet at the same time they’ll also say, “Of course, I’ve forgiven them. I have no bitterness or resentment.”
But, if we keep talking about it, it is still a problem for us. We may have done the official “I forgive you.” But we may not have made the decision to forgive and we need to be honest with God.
Love Covers
The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins. Do you know what that means? It means that love will even have you making excuses for your enemies. Someone might come up to us and say, “Well, I heard what so-and-so did to you.”
We can choose to reply, “You know, they didn’t understand what they were doing. They’ve just got problems of their own.”
When we really decide to forgive someone and pray the prayer that blesses our enemies, making the decision we will not talk bad about them, but instead, cover their fault and their mess, we still might not feel any different. The devil will try to work through our feelings to make us think that we haven’t really forgiven them. When that happens, we need to say, “I have done my part before God and now God will do His part. My feelings will catch up with my decision.”
I believe choosing forgiveness is one of the most difficult things God asks us to do, especially if we believe that whoever hurt us is in the wrong and doesn’t deserve to be forgiven. But God instructs us to practice forgiveness and that when we do, we can trust Him to deal with whoever has hurt us and help us walk through the steps of forgiveness. When we choose to follow the path of forgiveness instead of our emotions, we will experience the peace and joy that come through obeying God’s Word.
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FORGIVENESS BRINGS FREEDOM
Testimony
Terry S.
Lancaster, OH
Watching the Enjoying Everyday Life broadcast, listening to teachings, and reading Joyce’s books have not only changed my life, but have also saved my life. For many, many years I was sexually abused by my older brother. Due to this I always felt dirty. I hid in a shell for over forty years. I suffered from a horrible depression and self-hatred. But thanks to Joyce Meyer Ministries, depression is no longer a part of my life.
God, through Joyce’s teachings, did what years of therapy couldn’t do. Now I’m free, praise the Lord! I had seriously thought about suicide; I even tried twice when I was younger. The abuse really ruined my life, but now I can start living. I actually want to see my family, friends and even my enemies. I have forgiven all the people in my life who have hurt me. I truly love them. I’m not bitter anymore, the hatred has left me, and I’m happier than I’ve been in years. I feel more secure and I have found that I actually love myself. I am finally at peace and I’m free!
I feel I can now do my work that the Lord put me here to do. I have always loved animals—growing up they were my only friends. I have been caring for abused and homeless animals for over thirty years. I’ve helped thousands of animals, and I have the hope and faith that the Lord is going to show me the way, even with financial strains.
I now have joy in my heart, patience and newfound life. I am so thankful for Joyce and the staff at Joyce Meyer Ministries.
HAS GOD CHANGED YOUR LIFE in any way through Joyce Meyer Ministries? Whether it was a TV or radio broadcast, magazine or monthly letter, audio or video teaching, our website or a conference, we would love to hear your story. Go to www.joycemeyer.org/testimonies. Or, mail your testimony to:
Joyce Meyer Ministries
P.O. Box 1350
Fenton, MO 63026
