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- Oct 26, 2007
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Also do not take to heart everything people say, Lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times, also, your own heart has known That even you have cursed others. Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 NKJV
Most of us have heard the expression “Hurt people hurt people.” When sin entered the Garden of Eden, every human being suffered a separation from God and each other. That separation made us more than capable of cursing and slander.
Understanding that people will hurt you at some point promotes grace in every relationship, especially when you remember “you yourself have cursed others.” People benefit when they learn to ask for forgiveness and when they apologize to the individuals with whom they’ve shared negative thoughts about other people. Pride makes it difficult to say, “What I said to you about so-and-so the other day was unkind. I’ve already asked for his forgiveness, but I need to ask for yours.”
God certainly knows how it feels to be cursed. David wrote, “They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name” (Psalm 139:20). But David ends Psalm 139 with an unshakable understanding that benefits every man: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Prayer: Father, help me extend grace to those who wrong me and to ask forgiveness of those I wrong. Lead me in “the way everlasting.”
Most of us have heard the expression “Hurt people hurt people.” When sin entered the Garden of Eden, every human being suffered a separation from God and each other. That separation made us more than capable of cursing and slander.
Understanding that people will hurt you at some point promotes grace in every relationship, especially when you remember “you yourself have cursed others.” People benefit when they learn to ask for forgiveness and when they apologize to the individuals with whom they’ve shared negative thoughts about other people. Pride makes it difficult to say, “What I said to you about so-and-so the other day was unkind. I’ve already asked for his forgiveness, but I need to ask for yours.”
God certainly knows how it feels to be cursed. David wrote, “They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name” (Psalm 139:20). But David ends Psalm 139 with an unshakable understanding that benefits every man: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Prayer: Father, help me extend grace to those who wrong me and to ask forgiveness of those I wrong. Lead me in “the way everlasting.”
