“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written “For your sake we face death all the day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:33-37)
Who will bring a charge against us? Anyone. We have all had people bring charges against us – both true and untrue. We have all made charges against others – both true and untrue. Right now, I feel like I have faced death all day long, like a sheep to be slaughtered. Someone just accused me of something I didn’t say or for sure I don’t remember saying. That person communicated back and said, “I’m sorry! I jumped to a wrong conclusion.” A couple weeks ago someone who was mad at me about something I had no control over shot me a text to make me feel bad or guilty, and they succeeded. Last week, late at night, I couldn’t sleep. I was angry at someone who didn’t keep a promise to me, and I shot them a text to make them feel guilty. I have felt bad about it because I was being manipulative, and I am working on a letter to apologize since the person doesn’t live in my town and probably won’t answer their phone if I call. I don’t know what got into me. I try to be a good person, but I really failed!
I’ve prayed a lot in the last couple weeks about all these situations, and my saying something that I never thought I’d say made me ask questions. Do I really know what someone else is thinking when I get angry at them? No, I don’t. God is the only one who can know what someone else is thinking. Why late at night did I get so angry at someone that it made me crazy? I don’t really know the answer to that question. But in all of these situations Ephesians 6:12 comes to mind. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
We think our fight is against our accusers and the people that we accuse, but it’s not. Our fight is against evil, powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil. We need our Savior, Jesus. He is the only one who has the right to condemn us, but He doesn’t. He sits at the right hand of God interceding for us because He loves us. Who can separate us from the love of Jesus? No one, nothing. Hallelujah! I have conquered my problems. My fight isn’t against my accusers or the ones I have accused, family and friends whom I love. My fight is against evil – powers of this dark world and spiritual forces. Jesus fights the battle against evil for me, and He wins every time.
No, Jesus does not condemn us. He works for us and not against us. I have known people that truly have evil in their hearts. I have felt evil in my own heart. It is a horrible feeling. The evil passes with thought and prayer. What about people that have so much evil within them that they can take another life or permanently hurt someone physically or emotionally? Most likely they don’t ask God or Jesus for help or forgiveness. As you said, we do not know what someone else is thinking and assumptions can often be wrong. We should not be judging others. Only a higher power knows enough to judge.
Pam, I’m praying for you, and I don’t believe you have an ounce of evil in your heart. The enemy puts thoughts in our minds that we have to be careful not to act upon. Ephesians 6:10-20 is dedicated to telling us that we need to put on the armor of God to fight the devil’s schemes. I particularly like verse 18 which tells us to take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. That is why the evil passes with prayer. But God has also given us authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. (Luke 10:19) No one ever had more evil in him than the apostle Paul did. He clearly broke all 10 commandments multiple times when he was a Roman in power and his name was Saul. He had many Christians killed. But God completely changed Paul on the Road to Damascus (see Acts 9 and Acts 22) as He can change us or those that have so much evil within them that they can take another life or permanently hurt someone physically or emotionally. The catch is they don’t ask God or Jesus for help or forgiveness. Actually, Paul didn’t either until God intervened first. Praying for God to intervene in the lives of evil people is a great prayer because only God can change evil people