Rules Of A Godly Life: Part 1: Rule 6

"If anyone wrongs you, exercise a forgiving spirit and patiently dismiss the matter. For if you take the wrong to heart and become angry, you hurt no one but yourself and only do what your enemy wants you to do. If, however, you patiently forgive him, God will in His own good time judge the evildoer and bring your innocence to light."


I remember a sermon my brother Samuel gave to a group of teenagers who were chemically dependent. The sermon was about having evidence that we have a spirit and how we react to wrongs that others do against us.


He asked the teens if anyone had ever said anything to them that hurt them. The all said, "Yes."


Then he asked them where they felt the hurt. When asked they pointed to their hearts. He asked them what was there that could be hurt by words. Was it not their spirit that was hurt? They accepted this as evidence of their spiritual presence.


He then compared their spirits, "hearts", to different objects.


He took an orange and said, "This is the spirit that hears a hurtful thing and keeps it inside itself." He took the orange and threw it repeatedly on the cement until it broke open and the juice ran out. "When you hold hurt within you and you are repeatedly hurt, eventually you break and everything that was good within your heart is lost."


After this he took a rock and said, "This is the spirit that hears a hurtful thing and hardens itself in anger and fights back." He took the rock and repeatedly threw it against the cement. Then he handed the rock around the group and let them inspect it while asking them to look at the cement also. They could all see that both the rock and the cement were damaged. "What would happen if I kept this up?" he asked. Someone answered that the rock would eventually break. "That is correct!" was his response. "When you harden your heart to hurtful things and strike back, up damage those about you, and eventually you break."


Then he took a super bounce ball and said, "This is the spirit that hears a hurtful thing and responds in prayer for those who are hurting him." He took the ball and threw it against the floor and every time it was lifted up higher than his hand showing that this spirit was lifted up on the wings of prayer.


I will always remember this demonstration. I hope to always be that super bounce ball.