I stared at the cryptic text message. Oh no! Please Lord, not again!
But upon fact-finding and prayer, I knew the answer was unfortunately, yes. Yes, God’s people had made a corporate decision which had inflicted pain.
My heart went out to those directly affected. And prayers went up to a Father I had known for decades.
I was reminded that God is who I worship. Jesus is who I follow. I don’t follow a man.
I. Follow. God.
What did God expect me to do with this?
Certainly not gossip or judge. I did clarify facts to ensure our leadership had not done something unbiblical.
It did not appear they had.
I was simply left with a void in my life and an aching in my soul. My spirit was confused and sad, my heart heavy and burdened.
God had orchestrated events which took me from the church building for a few days before the events unfolded. I saw it as a blessing.
I knew God and I needed to hash things out, and I did not want to hurt others in my handling of my emotions. I spent a lot of time in prayer for the affected families and for our congregation to not experience division over these decisions. Since we are charged with “pray about everything without ceasing,” in 1 Thessalonians, I prayed a lot.
Every time the hurt resurfaced. Every time I thought of a good Christian gone. Whenever I just wanted to cry or call out or kick and scream.
I also asked God to hold my hurt.
Help me hold my tongue.
Help me not to sin in my anguish.
I thanked Him for this truth: God is still on His throne. No matter what happens, He is still in control of this crazy, whirling world.
No matter what we humans do, God will weave good from it. And I claimed that promise in Romans 8:28 for the injured parties.
I also reached out to the hurting, with only positive words of encouragement. I reminded them I was holding them in prayer and that God has them. We are called to focus on the positive and to remind each other of such things. (Philippians 4:8-9)
Finally, I retreated a bit. I spent more quiet time with God. Not only talking with Him and praying about this, but time in His Word reading and studying and learning about Him, not just how to handle this scenario.
Because the enemy could distract me and consume me with this hurt, I needed to focus my attention on the Lord and not just my circumstance. (Satan is always prowling around looking for someone to devour. I was trying to safeguard it would not be me.)
Hurt from God’s people is inevitable. God only has imperfect human beings to run His Church. Even when people are in prayer, we do not always agree.
But we must remember, this is about God. It is about witnessing for Him. And how we address each other reflects our own faith. We need to remember people outside the church are watching.
We want to testify for God, not against Him.
Maybe you, like me, struggle with being human. It hurts when God’s people are hit by the church. It’s hard to have a faith-filled and godly knee-jerk reaction. But God can give us the right response.
Will you join me in prayer for just that?
Prayer: Dear Lord, when my heart is heaving and my eyes ache from the tears spilled for Your children who are hurt by God’s people, please hold me. Show me how to process and grieve. Show me how to handle the emotions and control the anger and anguish. Help me come to You with all the words that want to escape my lips and help me speak only truth and encouragement. In Jesus’ name, Amen.