Proverbs 15:23 Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!
No matter what we do in life it will be met with cheers or jeers. Either you will be celebrated for the good work along with cheers of “Well done,” or you will be jeered with curses of “Throw the bum out'” for the perceived wrongs you are engaged in. Therefore, do what God has said to do with all your heart because, at the end of the day and the end of your life, His opinion will be the only one that counts. Col. 3:23 Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, 24 knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. The naysayers are always going to be around us and will always have something critical to say, no matter what we do. This is the default setting of judgmental people and this is why everyone needs Jesus as their saviour. Broken people cannot fix broken lives. We need God!
Jesus wasn’t treated any differently. Jesus, who is a perfect man, was celebrated with cheers and blessings and vehemently cursed and rejected. One moment the crowd is shouting “Hosanna in the highest,” Matt. 21:9b ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!” and the next, they are screaming “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Matt. 27:22b But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” The fickleness of the crowds and people’s hearts cannot be depended upon to come through for you when times are hard. We need a saviour who will never leave us nor forsake us.
When there seems to be constant jeering going on in our lives, do not look for affirmation among the broken souls of society. Look to the Lord who is the giver of life and will sustain us through the hardest valleys of transition. When God is cheering for us, there is not much those who jeer can do. God will run interference on our behalf. When Jacob was leaving Laban to get away from the oppressive terms and conditions of their working arrangements, God warned Laban not to touch Jacob or even speak unkindly to him. Gen. 31:24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” Literally, the jeering had stopped overnight. The family persecution and manipulation were no more, and the next phase of Jacob’s life could go forward.
We often forget the rhapsodic feeling of victory that is prevalent when God comes through for us. We seem to forget that God has been cheering us on while Satan accuses us of his damnable lies. God, on the other hand, just at the right time, speaks blessings over our lives. Prov. 15:23 Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time! We need to remember that God is for us and that suddenly He steps in and says, “Enough jeering, I will take on the fight because the fight belongs to the Lord!” 1Sam. 17:47a And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s.
The Apostle Paul had a lot of people cheering him on, but oh, the hatred from those who had nothing good to say about him was just as abundant. Paul understood the need to remember that God was for him and that the antagonists of the Gospel were but a momentary discomfort in life. Rom. 8:31b If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Paul had discovered through many trials and tribulations that there was nothing that could separate him from the Love of God and Paul basked in that knowledge. Rom. 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Saints, we live for an audience of one, and He is our God. For the rest of our lives, we will sometimes be cheered and other times be jeered and written off. We have to decide how we are going to respond in those high and low times. When we are cheered and encouraged let us enjoy the blessing and give our Heavenly Father the praise for the goodness we are going through. When we are mocked and ridiculed let us hand over the hurts and feelings of failure to God. Let the Lord turn our mourning into joy, our heaviness into praise, and the ashes we are holding into the beauty of the Lord’s assurance. Either way, we are more than conquerors through Christ who is for us. Amen!
It is good to be reminded that God’s perspective is the only one to follow, He the rewarder of those who diligently follow Him
Thank you for this Norm :) Saints, we live for an audience of one, and He is our God. For the rest of our lives, we will sometimes be cheered and other times be jeered and written off. We have to decide how we are going to respond in those high and low times.