With Mother’s Day approaching this weekend, I want to speak to all of those who are mothers and have experienced parental alienation. I want to speak to all those who have been ostracized because of their faith… Sometimes Holidays can bring pain and not joy and for whatever the reason, those of us who know that pain need to know that if you are part of God’s Called Remnant (a follower of Jesus the Christ), then you can be confident that He IS El Roi (the God that sees you).
Each of our situations are different, but it doesn’t matter because pain is pain and if we learn to refocus on God and not on people, He truly does become the lifter of our heads. God SEES your worth. You ARE precious to Him. You *may* be the only person in your earthly family who has come to faith in Jesus Christ. You *may* be someone who has been ostracized because you have decided to follow Jesus and swim against the tide of a world that doesn’t see the need to believe the Bible. Jesus Himself told us in John 15:18-25:
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.”
I have found that this scripture has helped me to swallow that “bitter pill” of those who have ostracized me for my faith, however when I look at all that those who came before me (in the Bible) have been through, I find myself in good company! 😉 The best way to combat the hate is to intercede on behalf of those who treat you wrongly or with disdain. PRAY for them because YOUR prayers might JUST be the reason why Holy Spirit intercedes and removes the spiritual blinders off their eyes!
Ol’ Slewfoot takes great joy in causing division within families and loved ones, remember John 10:10 tells us that the devil’s goal is as follows:
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill.”
He is out for blood (your blood and mine) but thankfully those of us who are covered BY the blood of Jesus we can be certain that our Lord and Savior is aware of the enemies tactics and even when we don’t “feel” like it (we are not to be led by our feelings) we can be assured that as in the scripture above, we are not experiencing anything that Jesus Himself did not experience. (We are in good company). Keep believing, keep interceding and don’t give up on God, John 7:5 tells us that Jesus’ own brothers did not believe who He was:
“For even his own brothers did not believe in Him.”
I think often of Noah, who was asked by God in the book of Genesis Chapter 6 to build an ark, and was ostracized, made fun of and laughed by the community around him. They thought he was a fool, but oh how their opinion of him quickly changed when that rain came pouring down and the floods rose up and God had already ushered Noah and his family (as well as all the animals) into the ark and the Bible says in Genesis 7:13-16:
“On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.”
When the people came to the realization that what Noah had been telling them had been true all along, it was too late – God Himself had sealed the doors of the ark and none could enter in, can you imagine what it must have been like for Noah and his family to hear the pounding of fists on the outside of the ark, the pleas to open the door? The knocking must have been horrendous to hear, but they had been warned as people in this present day have been warned. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:2:
“For He says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Jesus says in Revelations 3:20:
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”
Even though we are pained by rejection we MUST stand firm in faith in Him who has called us! Some of us have been the FIRST members in our family to come to Christ, whose blinders Holy Spirit has removed for a time SUCH as this! We MUST stand fast in our faith! We MUST continue with interceding on behalf of those we love who have not yet come to Christ! Trusting in God’s Word that says in 2 Peter 3:8-10:
“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”
Your prayers and your faith may result in the salvation of those you love. Be steadfast. Some of us have prodigal children that we have entrusted unto the Lord. Here is the thing, we can’t GIVE anyone OUR faith, it is something that each person has to develop on their own, BUT we CAN intercede and trust the Holy Spirit to do what is definitely in the will and in line with what God wants in according to His Word. Intercession IS a big deal. Your standing firm in your faith and interceding on behalf of someone DOES make a difference, God has saved YOU for such a time as this! We are ALL called to intercede in prayer. We MUST trust and believe the Word of God. Prayer is a powerful weapon, and we CAN trust our loved ones to God who loves them WAY more than we ever could.
Commit your children into the Lord’s hands if they are prodigals, I believe that Jesus’ gave us the story of the Prodigal Son for a reason, we always look at it in terms of all the prodigal went through, what it took for the prodigal to return home, BUT if we think about it from the Father’s point of view, what about the pain and longing for his son’s return that the Father went through as He waited for the son’s return? (And yes I capitalized Father in this paragraph because for those that have “prodigal children” and are waiting for them to “come home” our Heavenly Father understands what you are feeling – because John 3:16 tells us):
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
Father God is rejected and ostracized by His children ALL THE TIME. Think of those who have rejected His gift of salvation? He knows what it feels like to have a child who feels superior to their parent and to turn their back on them. Father God can identify with you who have been rejected or alienated by children who “think they know” but in reality do not. No one knows your pain better than Father God. You can bring that pain to the foot of the cross. Jesus was rejected by MANY of those around Him, He knows the pain of rejection. You can find comfort in the fact that you have a Heavenly Father who personally knows the pain of those who are experiencing that pain, whether it be your child, your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, the best thing you can do is PRAY and INTERCEDE and ask God to help you come to terms with it. Believe God for healing and believe that God will bring those into your life who will appreciate and love you and trust God that one day your prayers WILL be answered and Holy Spirit WILL open up their hearts to receive Jesus as Lord over their lives and as their Savior and the rejoicing will not only be in Heaven but in you as well for your due diligence in continuing to pray and believe. The Bible tells us in Psalm 91:7:
“A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.”
Just like with Noah, we have to determine to keep our eyes focused on the Lord and on what it is He is saying to us. We have to walk in obedience to God’s Word and to Holy Spirit’s direction, we can’t deviate to what it is He is telling us to do. God has given people “free-choice” and even when used incorrectly in a way that pains Him, the choice is STILL theirs, if someone chooses not to be a part of your life, it is their choice (even if it isn’t yours). Jesus said in Matthew 12:50:
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Sometimes we have to love people enough to let them go… Give them to God… And TRUST that God WILL change their minds and turn their hearts towards Him. It is called a “personal relationship” for a reason, they have to CHOOSE to be in a personal relationship with God on their own, we can’t do it for them. And ol’ slewfoot knows how much it pains us to see loved ones reject a God we have come to know and to love. Sometimes we have to love people enough to intercede on their behalf EVEN if they turn their backs on us, laugh and mock us, turn away from us – I have found that prayer is the HIGHEST form of love we can give. So I ask you, are you stuck in the pain of bitterness and rejection or have you risen (as your Savior has risen) ABOVE it? God knows your pain, He has experienced it – there is NOTHING in the Word of God that does not pertain to today. We just have to keep our eyes on Him and our faith in answered prayer. We have to “walk by faith” and entrust that the God who raised Jesus from the dead will certainly call our loved ones back to Him. As long as they have breath in their body God IS willing and God IS able. We who have unsaved or prodigals in our family can find peace in that. As much as we love our family, God who created them, loves them MORE. Look beyond the pain right into your Father’s eyes and find peace, the peace that comes ONLY from being in a relationship with Him who has called you by name and Who sees you. HE SEES YOU and He loves you with a redeeming, healing love.
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