24. ARE SOME PEOPLE INTENT ON PAINTING YOU BLACK?
Have you ever experienced a situation in life, where no matter what you do, there are people that are eager to paint you black? They don’t care how hard you try or what the truth really is or what your side of the story is or how much you want peace and are pursuing after it.
They are determined that the narrative should be that you be to blame for everything, that you be considered to be an awful person (because it makes them look good and in their competitive, malicious and sometimes even jealous minds, they get to score points on you) and that you be discredited to others at every opportunity.
Such people slander your name behind your back and the listeners join in with their sins by readily believing everything that is wickedly said about you, without even questioning what they’ve heard or asking God to reveal to them the truth of the matter or speaking to you directly about the issue.
Believe it or not, there are people like that among us: wicked people. Thank God they are not in control and on the throne or else you would be toast.
Sadly, there are other people, riled up by what those wicked people have said, that come after you, determined to inflict pain on you, so as to settle what the devil has convinced them is the score.
Even where you have been guilty of doing some wrong and are genuinely sorry after considering your ways, some people (who have also done many wrongs in life because nobody is perfect), will hold it against you for life but yet expect you, other people and God to forgive them when they have done wrong. Such people hold against you the crime of being human, which means that sometimes you mess up and say or do the wrong things and that like everybody else on the face of this planet, you are an imperfect human being.
Sometimes your emotions get the better of you and you say and do things you regret. This is the story with everyone, yet these people hate on you for a lifetime, even after you have repented of your actions, setting themselves up as perfect judge over you because they apparently never did or said a wrong thing in all of their lives. Ironically, some of them have done much more wrong than you have ever done but God is the judge.
God sees and He knows. Live your life to please him and forget about all the people I have mentioned above. Leave them in God’s hands. Once your conscience is clear, commit the whole issue to God who judges righteously. Joseph did that and God took care of him. In the end, after much pain, he was vindicated and those who tried to destroy him were ashamed.
There comes a point where you have to stop trying to win the affection of people or to change their minds or to get them to see the truth of the situation or that you are genuinely sorry for some wrong you have done and get on with your life. Perpetually trying to get these people to see anything other than black when it comes to you can be exhausting!
Once the Lord is with you, you have enough. He can heal those relationships but if he doesn’t, you need to stop mourning, forget the negativity and rejoice in your Lord who is your strength!
Their hating on you, badmouthing your or frowning at you, does not change your worth in the sight of God. Once you are his child, you are accepted in the beloved and though imperfect, you are still beautiful. God still loves you dearly and as you submit to him and his way, he will perfect that which concerns you (Psalm 138:8).
It is important that you know who you are as a person, as people will come after you, insisting that you are something, when in fact you are not. Such people will expect you to accept who they insist you are although it is a blatant untruth.
This is the spirit of accusation and it is commissioned by none other than the devil himself.
In John 8:44, Jesus reminded us that: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
When people come therefore and try to get us to accept who they have said we are we must not just give in and begin to wonder if we really are who they insist we are. We must instead fight back aggressively with the Word of God which is truth and which tells us who we are in Jesus Christ.
For example, such people may, after gossiping about you and not knowing all the facts, insist that you are slothful and do not want to work when in truth and in fact, you have always had an excellent work ethic, have operated with absolute integrity and God knows you have always been ambitious and love to work.
Such people may insist that you have no concern for other people, that you are not loving and that your heart is cold, when in truth and in fact, you are highly empathetic, overly considerate of others and caring. In fact, you would often sacrifice your time, money and self-interest to help others and have been doing that quietly without fanfare and show, for years. You avoid reading the Newspaper, looking at the local news and going to funerals as much as possible because you feel people’s pain and become quite emotional when they hurt.
Finally, such people may even have the audacity, after everything that you have been through in life with your Lord and how he has fought protectively and powerfully on your behalf over the years, taught you lessons and even chastened you when you did wrong, to insist that you are not a Christian and therefore, to separate themselves from you, to not speak to you and to treat you rudely, when in fact you are a part of the body of Christ, justified by his blood and not theirs.
These are all attacks by the devil, to get you to doubt who you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. He even tried the doubt strategy on Jesus himself when he was tempted in the wilderness, telling Jesus the Son of God in Matthew 4:3 and 6 “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread” and “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down…”
Jesus overcame him with the Word of God and we must do the same when these attacks come our way to mess with us, to introduce doubt, to discourage us and to tamper with our faith. All lies of the devil are to be dispelled with the Word of God, every time.
Be sure to read Note 161 under my BIBLE-BELIEVING Daughters Page, entitled: ‘Overcoming Oppression – Spiritual Warfare’, where I address this issue in more detail.
On the whole, if people have resolved in their hearts to hate, attack and ostracize you, there is nothing that you can do to change their minds. If some have purposed to paint you with the blackest of paints and brushes, no matter what you say, what you do or how you feel because they hate you, envy you, want to see you perpetually suffer for something you did them or someone else in the past or because they just love to see you cast down, hurting and miserable, only God is equipped to handle that kind of wickedness.
Whenever I get upset at such injustice, I am reminded of God’s Word which says:
- “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
- Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
- Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
- Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
- Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
- Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil…
- Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.” (Psalm 37:1-8,27)
I am also mindful of Romans 12:21 which always challenges me by instructing: “Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good.”
When people paint you black therefore with God’s help, paint a picture of your own. Paint your canvas beautiful with lots of mercy, grace, humility, repentance, forgiveness, goodness, understanding, love and compassion. This is the kind of painting that brings glory to God and procures his favour.
(Written on 1st November, 2020, added to thereafter)
Dear Reader, if you found the above Article to be interesting, informative or edifying, I encourage you to also read the following under my ‘BIBLE-BELIEVING Daughters’ Page:
Note 161 – ‘Overcoming Oppression – Spiritual Warfare’
