Hurt People Hurt People

As we get close to God, he is going to reveal things in our life that aren't pretty. We'll see the patterns of bitterness, anger, manipulation, and hurt that have cycled in our relationships.  Chip Ingram

Have you figured out that people who are hurting, hurt others.  By that I mean have you noticed how we live in a society of hurt and angry people?  Anger is prevalent in our society and it is getting worse and more often than not, a person who is hurting is going to hurt others through anger or some other means.

What are some of the characteristics of a hurting person?  They are angry and direct that anger at others.  They are insecure because they feel unloved.  Bitterness is a trait of a hurt person and so is sarcasm.  Hurt people build walls around themselves because they are afraid someone will see the vulnerable person inside. 

Secure people who know they are loved don’t act out in anger, bitterness or sarcasm.  A person who knows they are loved is generous, kind and loving. 

One of the things I have learned is that human beings are sinners.  You may think that is a stupid statement but many years ago I looked up to people who reflected an individual who was a Christian but when you learned the true details of their lives, it wasn’t pretty.  There were times in my life when I did this too.  I went through the motions of living a Christian life but there was darkness inside that I didn’t want anyone to see.

Living in a sinful world means that we are going to be disappointed by others around us and we are going to disappoint others too.  Too many times we depend on the people around us to be infallible.  So we look up to others and we are disappointed when they fail us.  Then we turn on them in anger for that very reason. 

When we learn that God is the only one Who loves us unconditionally and that if we put our faith in Him for our security and love, that is when we can learn the wisdom of loving others for who they are and not what we want them to be.  If our focus and security is in the love of Jesus Christ, we start to see the hurt in others.  What this produces in us is wisdom.  When we can see past the hurt and anger to the hurt person inside, we are headed towards God’s wisdom.  God promises us treasure if we search for it.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, in the past I was guilty of showing the world what I thought You wanted me to be, but I was a totally different me inside.  I now understand that it created sorrow, loneliness and hurt and that colored everything I did in life.  I have since come to know Your love and what an amazing gift You have given me.  Knowing You love me changed my life.  It helps me to see others in a different light.  It has taught me to love the unlovable.       

Scripture: This wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and it seemed great to me: There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great snares around it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man.

Then I said:
“Wisdom is better than strength.
Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised,
And his words are not heard.
Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard
Rather than the shout of a ruler of fools.
Wisdom is better than weapons of war;
But one sinner destroys much good.”  Ecclesiastes 9:13-18
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For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21