How Our Enemies See Our Struggles
Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.As for me, I said, “O Lord , be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die, and his name perish?”Psalms 41:1-5 ESV Read More
The psalm writer is not saying these things as if he is shaking his finger to teach us a lesson. The writer is saying these things because he has seen and learned them from his own experience with the Lord. There are plenty of times when we have a struggle or a hardship and the main source if anxiety is our fear or worry of the shame we will feel when other people see us in that rough spot.
The difference between our imaginary state of shame from our enemies and the reality is completely unnecessary. To assume what other people are thinking while we are in pain adds a lot of extra weight to what the Lord wants to help us carry. The Lord is not into shame. He wants to bring glory to himself and many times that happens by sharing his glory with his kids. That, in turn, brings his enemies to faith in him and they become his friends.
Because Christ has put us here and is with us in every situation, we can pray for and expect Him to work the same kinds of works in us today.
The Christian cannot simply take for granted the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies … He had come for the express purpose of bringing peace to the enemies of God. So Christians, too, belong not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the midst of enemies. There they find their mission, their work. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together