Excerpt

I was having a little difficulty in developing the idea of leaving my comfort zone when I found the devotional for September 13th in my daily devotional book, My Utmost For His Highest(2), by Oswald Chambers. The following quote caught my eye:

“It is a question of being united with Jesus in his death until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.”

Having nothing appeal to me that didn’t appeal to Him is a pretty tall order. I can remember a time in my life when I wrestled with that situation.

A mean-spirited person married into our family. She had a very angry nature and seemed to enjoy causing pain for others while reigning devastation on our family.

Sometimes she told very vicious lies. I prayed and read a lot during that time, asking the Lord for direction and help in dealing with this, and also asking for protection for her husband and the children.

I also spent a lot of time telling her off in my mind. There were times when I would settle down to pray, but the thoughts of how I hated her behavior and the hurt she caused to people I loved dominated my mind so much, I couldn’t pray.

Christians are supposed to be forgiving but her evil-minded actions never stopped. I didn’t feel very forgiving. Finally, one day, while mulling over the latest demonstration of her nastiness, I blurted in prayer, “She’s your child, God!”

If the truth be known, I was a little angry with Him as a parent for letting His child behave that way. I thought about unruly children. One of my pet peeves, is children running wild in the grocery store. They knock things off shelves, bump into other people and bang carts into people and things. Whenever I had my grandchildren in the grocery store, and they began acting like that, I reined them in quickly.

Still feeling angry with God, I said “She’s like a kid running wild in the grocery store. She’s Yours. Rein her in.”

What stuck in my mind was the thought that she was His child. If she was God’s child, as I was, then she was my sister!

I thought about my earthly parents, both deceased. I was one of seven children, and my parents loved each of us dearly. If any two of us acted the way that woman and I did, my parents would have been heart-broken because of our behavior and the ill will that existed between us.

I know that God loves each of His children dearly, too. It became clear to me that God’s heart must be breaking, too. I was participating in hurting Him.

I couldn’t stop her behavior, but I could stop mine. It was time to stop spending so much time telling her off in my mind. I felt clearly that God must feel very sad about our situation.

Suddenly, praying for one’s enemies made sense. How heartbreaking for a father to see his children totally disregarding every good thing that he taught them. I decided I wouldn’t participate in breaking my Father’s heart, and I began praying for my sister.

Did everything turn out well? Not really. Even though she divorced and left the family years ago, she still sends doses of nastiness our way, but I’ve become more aware of how much she needs to know the Lord intimately.

I don’t hate her anymore. I remember she’s God’s child, my sister. I feel sorry that she is so driven by anxiety and fear. I’m very concerned that she may not listen to or even recognize the Holy Spirit within her. I fear for her. If she doesn’t surrender her anxiety and fear to God in this lifetime, she may spend eternity filled with anxiety and living in fearful place. She’s in my prayers every night.

That incident was one of the few times in my life when I was able to step out of my comfort zone, and let go of something that did not appeal to Him, but I learned something from it. When we really look at things from God’s perspective, the things that don’t appeal to Him become clear, and then they don’t appeal to us either. When we look at life from His perspective, we can change our behavior.

The way things looked from my point of view, hating a woman’s actions, telling her off in my mind, seemed natural under the circumstances. It was human nature, and it came easily to me. It burst forth automatically every time she did something that caused distress. When it dawned on me to look at the situation from God’s perspective, changing my behavior not only became easy, it gave me greater peace and insight than acting as my human nature led me.