James 1:2-4 ESV
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Mental and Emotional Abuse
A lot of times when we hear about Christian persecution the
picture that we normally seem to get is of people under fire literally from
threats against their physical lives, running from their enemies, hiding out,
meeting in secret, getting blown to smithereens, and having their heads cut
off, etc. But not all persecution and not all abuse is physical. Thus, not all
of it can be proven, either, for there is no physical proof and usually no witnesses.
Some persecutors who are abusers do their persecution and
abuse in private and often will only target one person or individuals who they
can get alone to where there are no witnesses. And not only is the abuse (persecution)
not of a physical nature, but it isn’t all overt or loud and boisterous. Some
of it is expressed indirectly instead of directly, but at the root of it is a
deep seated anger and/or resentment and bitterness and hostility against
someone which may or may not be the targeted person.
Some of the ways that this is done is through confusion
tactics, saying one thing and then contradicting or pretending it was not said
and then blaming the other person. Or it is done through snide and biting
remarks intended to hurt the other person. The abuser also lays traps and attempts
to trick the other person into falling into the trap, which is usually not an
obvious trap, and sometimes this is done through gaining sympathy from the targeted
person. Another term for this is “gas-lighting.”
In other words, a lot of this is psychological persecution,
toying with people’s minds and emotions rather than in physical attacks. These
people are liars and deceivers whose goal it is to hurt others emotionally and
to attempt to confuse them mentally. And it is to manipulate people’s minds and
emotions and to attempt to sway them in a particular way. The abuser may be one
person with some people and a different person with other people.
These abusers and persecutors are able to abuse without
conscience and with no regret and with no compassion or sympathy towards those who
they persecute. They are totally self-consumed and they use other people to get
what they want out of them for their own sinful pleasures. They feed off of
other people’s misfortunes and prior abuses and attempt to take advantage of
them rather than to empathize with them.
Mind Games
They don’t take responsibility for their own behaviors and
they will be filled with continual excuses for why they are the way they are
and for why they have not changed, but they will repeat the same excuses over
and over like a broken record, and they will tell the same lies over and over,
and they will put on a show of goodness and righteousness to other people who
will then think that they are godly and that they are good when they are
abusers.
If they can’t get their target to cater to them they have
ways of exacting punishment on them that is emotional and mental and not
physical in nature, and this is intended as a means to control them and to get
them to do what they want them to do. They will devise subversive schemes to
make their targets’ lives miserable such as saying one thing but doing another,
blaming, stalling, excuse-making, and pretending ignorance as though they are hearing
or experiencing something for the first time when it is not the first time but
times repeated times over 100.
This is all about gaining control over the other person or
people. And so they intentionally do what they know will hurt the other person
(or people) emotionally and/or mentally in order to gain control over them, for
that purpose. So they will lie to the person and they may sometimes tell lies
about the other person to other people in order to get other people to think
badly of the other person and to think good thoughts about the abuser. Mind
games and tricks are their tools for persecution and abuse, in other words.
Jesus’ persecutors played mind games, too. Most of their
persecution of Jesus had to do with laying mental traps for him to fall into,
trying to trick him and to trip him up with his words, making false accusations
against him, trying to make him look bad in front of others so that they could discredit
him, and twisting the truth as a way to try to confuse and trick him, etc. But
Jesus knew what they were doing and so he did not fall for their tricks and
their traps, but that just made them more angry to the point to where
eventually they had him put to death in order to attempt to silence him.
So, please know that not all persecution is physical in
nature and there are a lot of people hurting in silence for they have no way to
prove that they are being persecuted. But please also know that you may be
being tricked and deceived, too, and you may not even realize it is happening
to you. For Satan’s messengers disguise themselves as servants of righteousness
and their goal is to trick and trap you in their divisive schemes. So this is
why we need to test the spirits against the Scriptures and pray for
discernment.
James 1:12 ESV
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
At least once Jesus told his disciples that if they were
persecuted in one place that they could wipe the dust from their sandals (Matt
10:14,23) and that they could flee to another place. Sometimes Paul remained
where he was being persecuted and sometimes he fled, and even sometimes where
he fled he then returned, knowing full well that he might be persecuted again.
So, this calls for much wisdom and discernment to know when we are to flee and
when we are to remain and to trust the Lord to work it all out for good.
But even if we flee, it doesn’t mean we are free from being
persecuted. For Jesus told us that if we follow him with our lives that we will
be persecuted for righteousness’ sake and for the sake of his name. And so we
could go from bad to worse if we flee out of fear. And this is why we need to
trust the Lord through it all to give us his wisdom and guidance and direction
and to teach us what we need to learn and to mature us in our walks of faith
and to make us into the people he wants us to be for his purposes and glory.
So, don’t flee out of fear. Trust the Lord to lead you into
what is best for you, and then remain steadfast in the Lord despite your trials
and persecutions and keep loving those who hate and persecute you. And learn to
count it all joy when you are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, because the
purpose is the testing of our faith that it might produce steadfastness in us,
that we might be mature and complete, lacking in nothing in our relationships
with our Lord and in our walks of faith and obedience. And then one day we will
be with our Lord forever and all suffering will cease. Amen!
[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt
24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet
4:12-17; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb
12:3-12]
Sweet Beulah Land
By Squire Parsons
I'm kind of homesick for a country
To which I've never been before.
No sad goodbyes will there be spoken
For time won't matter anymore.
I'm looking now, just across the river
To where my faith, shall end in sight
There's just a few more days to labor.
Then I will take my heavenly flight.
Beulah Land I'm longing for you
And some day on thee I'll stand
There my home shall be eternal
Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW8W7RXg6AA
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