‘I did not do it…why won’t anyone believe me?”, “why are they saying such things about me?”, “Who is making up such stories? I was never involved!” “I swear…Such a thing never happened!”
Any of these sound familiar?
These are few statements which we often speak when we hear of people who have misunderstood us or falsely accused us of something. I’m sure most of us would have gone through such situations where people blame us for no reason of ours.
Jesus said in Luke 17:1(NKJV) “It is impossible that offences will not come.”
Normally we tend to react to such situations by fighting back those people who spoke against us. We tend to respond hastily and sometimes, even violently!It feels unfair and terrible when people falsely accuse you of something, and often, no matter what you say in your defense, fails. I know of people who have gone into depression because of such incidents. Some tend to run away and hide, while some deal with it and overcome it. How you deal with it may differ depending on your temperament and the extent of the issue. God taught me a valuable lesson from the Bible on how to deal with such situations.
Reading portion: Mark 14:60, 61(NIV)
Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.
Here’s a little background on what happened. Some of the priests and scribes were planning on arresting Jesus by trickery and put Him to death. Finally Jesus was arrested and taken before the high priest (something like a court hearing). Many made false accusations against Him, but the reaction of Jesus was what caught my attention. ‘He chose to remain silent and answered nothing.’
When I read this verse, all those incidents where I fought back against false accusations came before my eyes. God reminded me that fighting back never helped me to get over it but had caused even more damage. He also reminded me of those incidents where I chose to remain silent and those matters had just faded away without causing hurt to anyone. When we fight back we give way for emotions to take over and such situations usually end in ungodliness and sin, bitterness and hurt. We have to guard our heart and refuse to fight even when others want to draw us in, no matter how badly we want to take a swing…Walk away!!As we read in Ephesians 4:3(NIV),
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace”
A saying goes like this, “If you mix with goats you’ll smell like goats”. In other words, if we tend to act and react like our accusers, we are no better than them! I recall a quote from Mahatma Gandhi who said “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.” At the end, the truth always prevails!
Follow the way of Jesus, the way of Love and peace.
good one…….