Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Romans 12:14
When a wrong is done to you, you can brood on the offense, but the more you do that, the more your own heart will be hardened. Or you can put yourself in the shoes of the person who brought pain into your life: What if I had experienced what he or she has endured?
Remember what God said to Jonah about the city of Nineveh: “Should not I pity Nineveh?” (Jonah 4:11). The great city of Nineveh was filled with 120,000 people who did not “know their right hand from their left.” In other words, these people had sinned to the point where they no longer knew the difference between right and wrong. To them evil had become good and good had become evil. Their plight does not call for anger. It calls for pity. It calls for compassion.
If you find yourself struggling not only with what people around you are doing, but with your reaction to them, here is one verse that will help you: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).
It will help you to grasp that others really do not see what you see. They are blind to the glory that you see in Jesus, and when you know that someone is blind you don’t get angry with them, you feel sorry for them. If it was not for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life, you would be blind to His glory, and who knows where you would be or what you would be doing.
Are you struggling with your reaction to people around you? Reflect on 2 Corinthians 4:4 and pray and ask God for more compassion.
