In my last blog I wrote about how God can use our enemies to
elevate us to another level of blessings.
God said in His word to “Sit until I make your enemies your
footstool.” This was a phrase that I
heard before many times and I thought I understood what it meant. But I never
really understood it until God allowed me to learn a whole new perspective on
it through a real life experience.
Recently, God blessed
me with an awesome opportunity at a new company. It was tailor made for my personality, my
schedule my family and my lifestyle, not to mention it had some tremendous
financial benefits attached to it. There
was only one problem, one of my coworkers turned out to be a serious
“Hater”. Even though I had a feeling
that something was not quite right with her, I chose to ignore my instincts and
tried to be friendly and cordial towards her.
I thought that I would make the best of the situation, because unfortunately
not only was she my coworker, my boss thought that it would be a great idea to
have her assist in training me as well.
I began to trust my instincts that something was wrong when she repeatedly
asked me to accompany me on her daily errands and shopping trips instead of
training me for the daily functions of my new job. She would even tell me to knock off early and
in some cases not to come in at all… hmmmm, I thought this is starting to get a
little suspicious. So finally I decided
to listen to that small voice inside of me and request a meeting with my boss
about the progression my training. I
didn’t want to be unprepared for my job when the time came for me to fly
solo. I was glad that I did so, because
it was at that time that I found out that she had been giving my boss false
reports about everything from my attendance to my performance and attitude. I also found out that not only was she lying
on me and trying to make me look bad and refusing to train me, she had also
fabricated an elaborate vicious lie about me, went in to see the owners of the
company, told it to them and every
person that she came in contact with in our small company. But she wasn’t done yet; she also went to the
owners of the company and requested to take away every single account that I
had that could possibly help me to generate any decent revenue in my territory. And to
complete her diabolical scheme, she also enlisted a friend of hers to help her.
This friend of hers happened to work in the department that controlled our
sales leads, and she told her to make sure that I didn’t receive any leads and
that they would all go directly to her.
It all made sense to me now, why everyone including the owners was now
treating me so differently. Everyone was
extremely cold and stand offish with me.
I was totally oblivious; I thought it was just because I was the new
girl. Now I know why my team had been
excluding me from social functions and leaving me out of the friendly huddles
and brain storming sessions.
I felt a surge of fury and devastation rush over me all at
once. Why was she doing this to me,
what possible reason could she have for treating me this way? Why would someone I barely know try to sabotage
my career, ruin my reputation and try to take away my livelihood, the way that
I provide for my family? For one fleeting moment I even went so far as
to ask God why He would put me in a situation like this. But at least I did have enough spiritual
maturity to answer that question for myself and not insult God with it. Just because God gives you a blessing it
doesn’t mean that there will not be challenges or obstacles that will accompany
it. The Israelites had to go through the
desert and were expected to fight their enemies to siege and occupy their
promised land. So I wasn’t about to let
myself start to go down that road of feeling sorry for myself, who was I to
think that I was to be excluded from problems, or painful challenges?
My first thought
after shaking off my painful, confused emotions, was that of retaliation, my
feisty nature immediately took over, I wanted to meet her in the parking lot
and just beat her butt. Not literally of
course, but emotionally and professionally definitely. I wanted revenge; I wanted her to feel the
same pain that I was feeling. After all
I told myself that anything that I did to her right now would be totally
justified. I could very easily plot and scheme against
her and her little minion until their lives were just as miserable as mine
was. But my soap opera revenge fantasy
lasted only for a brief second before I let the whole mellow dramatic plan
go. I knew in my heart that it would be
the wrong thing to do, maybe in a past life I might have gone there, but it
just wasn’t who I was anymore. And it
was also at that very moment that I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “Sit still
and let God handle this.” This seemed to
be a very simple request, but it was not an easy one. In fact it was and to this day one of the
hardest things I have ever had to do.
And because she and I still work together and she and her little
sidekick are still up to their same old tricks, it is still one of hardest things
that I pray for the strength to continue to do every single day. As a matter of fact today was one of those
days, I saw her in the parking lot and the urge to run her down still came over
me. I just prayed it away and drove out
as quickly as I could before my car “ACCIDENTALLY” lost control and hit her…oopsy!
J
But anyway, as I was saying, when I read the verse, “Sit until I make your enemies your
footstool”, I was kind of hoping
that in this case God meant it for me in its most literal sense. I wouldn’t mind putting my feet up on top of
my coworker, heck I probably would even be okay with jumping up and down on her
at this point. LOL, just kidding J But what I know today is that God was saying
this to me. One day, not only would He allow
our enemies to serve us by acting on our behalf in a role of support or
subordination to us somehow, but now I understand it in a deeper sense to mean
something much more profound. This verse
was mentioned at least three times in the bible, Luke 20:43, Acts 2:35 and Psalm 110:1. There may actually be
more occurrences, but those were the only ones that I counted. So what that tells me was that there was
something rather significant in its meaning for us, that God felt the need to
repeat it so often. And although it
appears to be very short and simple, for me, its meaning was very deep.
Think about it, what the heck is a footstool? Immediately when I ask myself that question I
pictured myself, kicking back with my feet resting on a plush ottoman. But
footstools can also serve us in more than one way. A footstool can also be used as a prop to
boost us up to a higher level in order to reach something we could not ordinarily
reach without assistance. Now what I
also found interesting about this verse was that God also gave us one very
important and explicit instruction to accompany this promise. And instruction He gave was to “SIT”.
Yes that’s right He said sit, just sit, be still, do nothing, don’t
fret, don’t worry, don’t scheme, don’t plan, don’t plot, just give it over to
me, He said, and let me handle it my way.
I believe that God
wants us to know that when situations arise where people hurt us or betray us
without cause or provocation that He wants us to give the matter over to Him,
trust Him to handle it, and then just sit and wait on Him to do his thing. For
most of us, this may be the hardest part of the entire process. But if we can
trust Him to handle our battles, He will take care of our enemies and the
circumstances that are associated with the issues they have caused for us. “We know that all things work together
for good for those that love God.” (Romans 8:28). God wants us to know that if we suppress our natural tendencies to
seek revenge, lash out or retaliate against our enemies, and go through the
situation prayerfully, giving it to Him, we will grow stronger, more mature,
and therefore move up to a new level of faith and trust in our relationship
with Him. But not only that, God has a
way of avenging us and disciplining our enemies in a way that will have long
lasting effects on their lives.
God’s revenge is always sweeter than any plan or scheme we
could ever come up with, because God has created us all, and He knows what make
us tick, He knows how to push our most sensitive buttons. I believe that God will discipline our
enemies on our behalf and cause them to be a witness to the blessings that the
He is giving us, in spite of all they may have tried to do to prevent it, and it
will hurt. Because truly the best revenge is living well, being prosperous,
successful and happy, in spite of our enemies
or the circumstances going on around us. Nothing hurts your Haters more than
watching you get better, happier, more prosperous and more blessed.
I know that if we let Him, God will use your enemy and the
whole situation to make you into a stronger better wiser person, and just like
a footstool, your enemy will serve you, and they will have made you stronger,
because you had to persevere through the struggle that they took you
through. And you would have defeated
them and therefore used them as a stepping stone to rise to new, greater and
higher levels in your life, including your faith and trust in God. And for this
He will reward you handsomely. If you
are innocent of and remain righteous, you will always wind up standing on top
of your enemies. For “If God is for you, who can be against
you?” (Romans 8:3) And let’s not forget,
“No weapon formed against you
shall prosper.” Isaiah 54:17. We will indeed come out on top of our
enemies, if we do what God is telling us to.
And I know this from personal experience. God has already blessed me tremendously in my
new position already, He has opened
doors for me that have never been opened previously and allowed me to plant
seeds of opportunity that I know will grow into amazing revenue streams for
both me and my company, and I know that this is just the beginning. I’m not quite sure how all of my blessings
will manifest themselves, but I am anxiously waiting to see what miraculous
things God will do on my behalf now and in the future. I know that with God it’s always a surprise,
you just never know, but I will definitely be keeping you posted.
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