Years ago during a dark time in my life, when I was being harassed as a Christian by co-workers at my job, I found this Scripture promise in John 16:22 that has encouraged, comforted and warmed my heart since.
Cruel People Will Hurt You
If you had the time and wanted to hear it, I could easily spend a few days sharing all of the inexplicably painful instances in my past when people deeply hurt my feelings, did me wrong and persecuted me. Sometimes it was over my Christian faith, other times because I am a man, other times it was simply because they were jerks and could. People can be so cruel. A man emailed my ministry years ago and said something that I have never forgotten: People equal pain!
When I lived on Guam my wife abandoned and divorced me in 2006. By 2009, my children had all become adults and gone their own away in life. I was all alone in the world. I was at the Payless grocery store one day in Hagatna. It was early December. A Filipina woman was working the cash register. She asked me if I had a wife or a girlfriend. I replied, “No.” She cruelly said, “Oh, you're going to have what we call in the Philippines, 'a cold Christmas.'”
As I walked to my car with my groceries I began to cry. I put the groceries into my car and went back into the store to told the manager what the insensitive horrible woman had said to me, with uncontrollable tears streaming down my face. My heart was broken. I told the manager, “Yes, I am divorced and all alone in life, and I very much am going to have 'a cold Christmas.'” She listened but I couldn't tell if she cared or not. I told her it was the woman working cash register number two. I don't know if the manager talked to her or not.
Afterwards I was so hurt that I didn't go back to that store for over a year. I pray and hope that God holds that rotten woman accountable in eternity for the evil words she said to me. Your words can be like bullets dear reader, making people wish they were dead, so please be careful to think before you speak. Matthew 12:26, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
Jesus had just told His disciples that He would be going away. They were sad. The dear Savior had already told them that He would be crucified to death. They were all friends. Jesus was their Master, God and Savior. To comfort them the LORD said in John 16:22, “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” That phrase at the end changed my life, “and your joy no man taketh from you.” Amen and amen and amen! The future day will come when no man will ever steal our joy from us again. You have God's promise of it!
Drawing Close To God
I need God more today than I ever did. I want God in my life today more than every before. ...
James 4:8-11, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”
I often hear preachers quote verse 8, but leave off the other verses in the passage. They are all connected. Dear reader, you cannot draw near to God while speaking evil of your Christian brother! That is why God is telling us this here. If you are a gossiper, slanderer or hateful critic, don't expect to draw close to God because He won't draw close to you.
If you want to draw close to your Creator, then you need to turn your laughter into mourning. In other words, you need to share God's burden for the souls of lost sinners (2nd Peter 3:9). God's burden is soulwinning. If you want to impress God and become buddies, then you get busy preaching the Gospel to lost sinners. When I used to work alongside my father, I learned more from him during those times than at any other. ...
Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
There are people who sit at home and spend time studying the Word of God, but have never done anything with that knowledge. That are what is often called a, “Dead Sea Christian.” The Jordan River flows fast from the Sea of Galilea up north down into the Dead Sea, but there is no outlet in the Dead Sea. That is why everything is dead there! It is the saltiest body of water on the planet, and the farthest body of water below sea level. The Dead Sea is also where the wicked destroyed city of Sodom once existed. The Dead Sea is so salty that if you went swimming in it you couldn't sink if you tried, you'd just float.
The Greatest Commandment in the Bible is To Love
This fact is exemplified in Jesus' words...
Jesus promises each and every child of God, that one day in eternity no man will ever take our joy away again. Hallelujah! John 16:22b, “and your joy no man taketh from you.” Yes, people will take away your joy. I wish that I could say, “if you let them,” but life is never that easy friend. I don't think any Christian can honestly claim that no one has ever taken away their joy at some point in their past. You may bounce back quickly, but someone at some point in life will rob you of the joy of being a Christian. At those difficult times in my life, by God's grace I always seemed to rebound quickly by remembering Jesus' words in Luke 10:20, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”
Matthew 22:36-40, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
So, we see here that the TWO greatest commandments are to LOVE GOD with all thy heart, and to LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR as thyself. Brother Lester Roloff (1914-1982) wisely said that these two great commandments are really just one: TO LOVE! I wholly agree.
People will hurt you! Family will betray you. Friends will forsake of you. Spouses will abandon you. Churches will throw you under the bus. Parents will disown you. Society will ignore you. Faith in God is our only real security in life. I cherish Jesus' solemn promise in John 16:22, “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” Amen and amen and amen!
