Matthew 5:11-12
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
A number of years ago we lived next door to a neighbor who was, what you might call, an old crank. Her husband was a little namby-pamby, but she was just miserable. We tried to do things that would show a spirit of Christ, but she remained hostile.
One day we were returning home and saw her out in front of her house working feverishly on her landscaping. I stopped the car and made a pleasant comment about how nice it looked. It was like I turned on the power to a chainsaw. She lashed out at me that the reason she was doing it was that I had complained about it to the manager.
I was taken back and assured her that I had not said anything to anybody about her yard. She snarled back that I was a liar and a trouble maker. As long as we lived there she remained entrenched in her bitterness toward us. There are times when we will not be able to avoid the adverse reaction of some people. We can be totally innocent yet there will be some who will misunderstand our actions.
I thought about this incident as I was fighting through a problem with the way some of our readers receive weird symbols instead of the proper punctuation marks. I always send the Daily-E-Votionals out correctly, but some of you do not receive them that way.
It is like I am misunderstood. My intent is to have good clean copy, but then I get the feedback that a quotation mark is replaced with something like: +#@&. By the way, if you are one of those readers, please let me know and I may be able to correct it. The best any of us can do is to keep our hearts right with the Lord and our attitudes sweet, regardless of the reaction of people. Please God and love those who are unlovable.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil