A few years ago I was talking with 3 kids at the request of their parents. All 3 were living the life of drama and drugs. After we talked for quite some time, the oldest one who was 18 asked to get together again. During our second conversation, I showed him a picture of my Yamaha motorcycle after he had mentioned that he had one. Towards the end of our discussion he asked If I ever remembered a guy in a small car almost hitting me on my bike one day. At first it didn’t register, because this is almost a daily occurrence!
Then it hit me! 2 years prior to that, as my family and I were moving from Chippewa to Stanley, while hauling our last load on the back roads I was on the bike and my wife and kids were behind me in the truck and trailer. When we were about 2 miles from Stanley, two different cars blew through a stop sign on an already dangerous intersection hidden by corn crops. The first car that blew through came within 6” of my rear tire. I thought for sure I was dead! What’s worse in my family including our newborn baby was in the truck behind me, and a second later and he would have hit them!
Needless to say, that when this happened, the old me came out quick! I waited for my wife to get next to me, waved her by and told her to go home. I then proceeded to run these guys down. They had booked pretty good and were a ways away. While chasing them down my self talk was anything but Godly, and knew what I wanted to do with them after I caught them!
Immediately I “captivated” those thoughts and started praying in the Spirit, because I knew where those thoughts and self-talk was going lead me. When I finally caught up to the end car, they opened their window and yelled to me that it was the car in front of them which almost hit me. When I finally got to the second car, he had finally come to a stop sign and stopped. He had the window rolled partially down and was this young kid visibly shaking and saying sorry over and over.
I got off the bike, went up to his window and said to him: “Dude, 5 years ago this would have been all bad for you! But since I have come to know the Lord and He’s the ONLY thing holding me back from dragging you out this window right now! I told him that even then this might be a completely different outcome if he would have hit and hurt or killed any of my family who was driving right behind me. I then told him I was the new Youth Pastor in town and gave him my card. I told him that I used to do stupid stuff like that when I was young, but hoped this was his lesson and won’t be doing anything like this again.”
As I was talking to this kid 2 years later, he said he couldn’t believe the way I handled that and it left an impression on him.
You see, when I was born again, ALL things were made new in my life, including the need for hatred, vengeance, and the need to make people afraid of me. The new heart went to prayer instead of rage. Oh, there was still some anger, but the power of prayer and asking the Spirit to lead me was more powerful. “He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4). Satan is a deceiver. Only God is all powerful, all knowing and all present.
Anger, rage, and the need for vengeance may seem “more real” to us than the presence of the Spirit, but that’s part of Satan’s deception. Satan is a defeated foe, and we are in Christ, who is the victor! The battel is in our minds. Satan cannot read minds, but he can hear us, and when I got vocal with that prayer it put him in his place and God guided me.
Positivity leaves a longer lasting impression than negativity. The Lord tells us to give our enemies water when they are thirsty, and that day I gave them living water! Have you shown love to an enemy today? Galatians 1:23-34 – “He who formally persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” “And they glorified God in me.” Let your life and actions be glorifying to God, not just in good situations, but also, and especially, in bad ones!
Last Update: Apr 24, 2017 6:43 pm CDT
