am proud and that is the reason it hurt. If I weren't so wrapped up in how much awesomeness I have, I wouldn't have limped away so wounded, but nevertheless I am. And now I'm struggling in my mind to not replay the scenario over and over and over again with all the alternate endings cued up. It's now over. The fog has cleared a little and it's just me and Jesus.Although the jury is still out on if the person is a true Christ follower, the recent article I read by Dr. Mike Milton put the healing balm of the Gospel on my wound. Please read this excerpt. I think it will help you, dear reader, if one day you are hurt by a person meaning to hurt you.
This is for anyone who is a believer hurt by another believer, for a loved one hurt by another loved one, for anyone feeling like a victim of another person, or maybe just feeling betrayed by life. In order for you to move from victim to victor in dealing with the pain of betrayal or suffering of any kind, drastic steps must be taken. The hurt person, who is not embracing that pain as a means for God to do something in his life, is the person who is stuck and for whom the clock has stopped. He is not denying himself. In fact, the very thing he wants to do is feed pain: "They hurt me, they said this about me, and I was offended." But Jesus says, "Take up your cross, follow Me, deny yourself, whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."
We want to think about cross-bearing as physical pain, and it is. We also want to think about taking up our cross as standing up for truth and maybe taking some hits for it, maybe even being a martyr for it. Throughout church history may have done so.
But the context of the cross is betrayal. The context of the cross is the pain of being hurt by those close to us.
Zechariah 13:6 speaks of "the wounds I received in the house of my friends." This is the pain you may feel in your heart. This may be where you are living today.
God does not call us to live in distrust, but to live by faith in Christ. It is not that I implicitly trust all men; it is that I trust God in all situations. And this makes life sweet.
Will you say, "I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and share in His sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may rise again"? Will you believe that though "they" meant it for evil, God meant it for good? Will you go on and live this risen life that Christ offers you right now?
This is from Dr. Milton's booklet Hit by Friendly Fire: What to do When Christians Hurt You.
