TROUBLING TIMES: HANDLING UNFAIR TREATMENT FROM OTHERS

BIBLE PASSAGE:
Deliver me from my enemies, O God; be my fortress against those who
are attacking me. Deliver me from evildoers and save me from those
who are after my blood. See how they lie in wait for me! Fierce men
conspire against me for no offense or sin of mine, Lord. I have done
no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Arise to help me; look on
my plight! You, Lord God Almighty, You who are the God of Israel,
rouse Yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to wicked
traitors. They return at evening, snarling like dogs, and prowl about
the city. See what they spew from their mouths—the words from their
lips are sharp as swords, and they think, “Who can hear us?” But You
laugh at them, Lord; You scoff at all those nations. You are my strength,
I watch for You; You, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely.
God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who slander me.
But do not kill them, Lord our shield, or my people will forget. In Your
might uproot them and bring them down. For the sins of their mouths,
for the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride. For the
curses and lies they utter, consume them in Your wrath, consume them
till they are no more. Then it will be known to the ends of the earth that
God rules over Jacob. They return at evening, snarling like dogs, and
prowl about the city. They wander about for food and howl if not satisfied.
But I will sing of Your strength, in the morning I will sing of Your love; for
You are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. You are my strength, I
sing praise to You; You, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely.
(Psalm 59:1-17)

MEDITATION:
Kind of a long bible passage today, isn’t it?

However, if you have read it all, you can see the anguish David was
feeling as he was being treated unfairly by others. He equated them
to ‘snarling dogs’ who were bent on causing harm. Even though he
would eventually become a king, we can see how David called on
God, and depended on Him to fight his battle for him.

What do you do when it seems others are against you, and especially
when you feel you have done nothing wrong? How do you handle it?
Do you try to make amends for something you feel you haven’t done?
Do you allow anger and bitterness to destroy your peace and happiness?
Do you decide to be more assertive, and it causes you to lose the
gentleness you are known for?

People can be unfair, unreasonable, and untrustworthy at times,
and this creates challenges for those who are affected by their
words and actions. How did David (a man after God’s own heart)
handle these situations? In Psalm 59, we can see several things
that David did (which are things we should consider as well).

This was a Psalm of David’s after Saul had sent men to watch his house
in order to kill him. David had opportunities to terminate Saul, but he
chose not to kill him. Even though Saul was determined to treat David
badly, David treated him kindly in return. How did he have the ability
to do that?

First of all, he prayed.
    David knew that God was aware of the situation and that He had
    the power to ‘make things right’. David didn’t expend a lot of energy
    trying to resolve things himself; he relied on God as an act of faith.
    We need to remember that challenging times gives us opportunities
    to exercise our faith. Difficult times can either draw us closer to God,
    or push us further away from Him. It all depends on what choices we
    make. We can choose to be independent and rely on ourselves, or we
    can choose to be dependent and rely on God. It’s a matter of faith, right?

David also knew to wait on God.
    Rather than charging in to resolve the situation himself, he chose
    to wait on God to intervene…on His timetable. Quite often we can
    cause problems to escalate when we fail to wait on the Lord. We may
    think we know the right time for action, but God can see what we
    can’t, so His timing is far better than ours.

David knew who was in charge,
so he trusted in God, who rules everything.
    God has mercy on those who are suffering without reason and can
    pass judgment on those who are unfair. God is the one who is
    qualified to judge; we are not; that’s His responsibility, not ours.
    Why? Because He sees from beginning to end and not just the
    ‘snapshot of time’ that we see. Sometimes we make decisions
    and take actions based on an inadequate amount of information.

Lastly, we see that in spite of
his circumstances, David chose to sing praises to God.
    David knew that he could not control the actions of others, but
    he had confidence that God was in control, so he chose to focus
    on His goodness, and sing praises to Him.

ACTION:
Are you one who chooses not to sing with other believers at church?
You may not feel like singing at the time, or you may feel that you
don’t have a very good singing voice. Do you think God appreciates
your praises to Him only if you sing good? Of course not, He sees
what is in our hearts. When we sing praises to Him, what is in our
heart spills out in our songs. If we are not singing at all, then we
should be concerned with the contents of our heart.

Have you ever noticed that some people shed tears when they sing
praises to God? Why would they do that? Are they feeling guilty
for something they have done? I believe it is because something
special happens when we hear our own voices praising God. The
words have more meaning to us when we hear them coming from
our own mouths.

Suffering can be difficult when we feel we have done nothing wrong.
Rather than deciding to resolve issues in our own strength, or allowing
the situation to change our own personality, we need to learn David how
to handle adverse circumstances (in his case, they were life-threatening).

We need to:
– Exercise our faith and trust in God (pray).
– Wait on God and patiently respect His timetable.
– Trust God and don’t make decisions based on limited information.
– Sing praises to God; focus on His goodness
and not the ‘badness’ of others.
– When He brings us through the storm,
remember to thank Him for answering our prayers.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, forgive me for the times I have tried
to handle unfair treatment from others in my own strength
and on my timetable. Remind me of the magnitude of Your
presence in my life, and help me to open up more of my life
to You. Teach me to depend on Your knowledge and timing
of resolving unfairness from others. Help me to understand
that You want my dependence, and not my independence.
Thank You for ‘being there’ for those who belong to You
and remind me to worship and praise You for all the good
things in my life. Your are my Heavenly Father whom I
love. Thank You for Your love, forgiveness, blessings and
salvation.”

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