Recently I received a word from God through a beautiful man. He said, “Abandon your rights to anger about this situation.” I could hear God in these words and immediately agreed. Yes, I will abandon my rights to anger. And while I obeyed, I had no idea where the ramification of my obedience would lead.
Rights to Anger
After saying yes to this abandoning of my “rights” I felt powerless. I knew if I gave these up I had no recourse. But in this weakness, my Father filled in the void. What I experienced and witnessed after laying down my sword was that the Lord could do something that has never happened in my life. He took up for me through a man.
Laying down these rights gave God access to take them up. He came in as my defense, protector and stood up for me through this very man. I have never experienced this in my life. I never had a man step up to the plate for me. He literally went to bat for me in a very difficult situation that produced a lot of fear in me. Anger is sometimes the response to fear, and obviously because of this word, it would have been mine. The Lord Himself was my defense.
This lesson is something I never want to lose. I never even considered His defense being the result. When I hear a word like this, I typically believe that it is going to be an opportunity for me to have to turn the other cheek. That I am going to be a doormat for others to walk upon. But my Daddy had another plan in mind. “Step aside, so I can stand for you!”
Abandoning Rights
This doesn’t mean the Lord took my side. Not at all! There was no sides to be taken in this difficult situation. What He wanted was for me to lay down arms so He could sovereignly shine in my life. He wanted to establish His order and my anger would have only complicated and disturb the balance.
Oh Jesus, please let me rest in You to be all that you want to be! Let me not exert fleshly power to defend my rights or position. I want to so see You step in for me and the establishment of Your own Kingdom. I own nothing and am Your to secure. From beginning to end, it is You who makes my path straight to Yourself.
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
Romans 12:19
This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
James 1:19-20
I’ve been basking in “the God Who sees me”, “the Living One Who sees me”…this is for us all, as His children. Children need to know there is SomeOne Who sees them, Who hears “their cry of distress”. It’s ok to need…HE sees me. I can trust Him with my heart. To be seen by Him means we have a future He’s planned. We don’t have to run from trouble…like Hagar did. The Lord found her in the wilderness & asked, “where have you come from, & where do you intend to go?” She answered with her heart. We return… Read more »
I once experienced the judge in a court case, shush my lawyer, stand and point her gavel at the plaintiff and her lawyer and rebuke them on my behalf. I did well to keep myself together until we got out of the courtroom following the hearing – and then fell apart with gratitude for God’s help in times of trouble. Where I often falter in similar situations is in thinking that God will always work that way. In fact, He may ask for a different response from me in a new but similar situation – because it’s all about relationship… Read more »
This is beautiful!