Even with the best of intentions and determination, how do we do what Jesus would do when we are purposely provoked and hounded and pushed? Jesus was so special and we are only human and when constantly confronted by negativity and provocation and bitterness and intentional rudeness and deviousness, how are we suppose to respond? It feels like I have "turned the other cheek" so much that I am tired and still nothing really changes. Why is it so hard to just want to live life joyfully, contently with a little love and laughter and most important, to live with God in this harden world?
2006-12-20 15:55:45 · 8 answers · asked by phyllis_gene_levy 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sin causes this hardship on us
yes I myself have turned the other cheek so many times I feel like I have whiplash...lol
No one can step into Jesus's shoes and walk the straight and narrow like He did
But we can surely try our best to live our lives for God
2006-12-20 16:01:19 · answer #1 · answered by snuggels102 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is probably the best question I've ever seen on Answers. It is just great, great, great. That's because it goes straight to the heart of the most important mystery of life -- why is it so HARD?
I'm sorry to say, I don't have the answer, unfortunately. But I have a couple of things to remember:
1. Jesus was killed; he had it no easier than we do.
2. We've been given the Holy Spirit; the biggest task of our life is to learn how to accept it.
3. Yeah, we're only human, that means we sin, we fall short. So: repent, that is, turn back to God, and keep on keepin' on.
4. Above all, pray to God in silence, from the heart, listening for his voice.
2006-12-21 00:05:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
LET THE POWER OF MY ENCHANTED RING ENLIGHTEN YOU...I thank you for the question, because that very issue has been bugging me of late. My church leaders use to preach about how we should walk and talk like Jesus. Or use Jesus's life as a roadmap for your own. Jesus was the Son of God. How could I ever truly walk and talk like Jesus?! I wish the Bible contained more stories of Jesus's life, and (dare I say it) faults. Not to belittle him, but to relate to his ability to overcome faults. However, if a lot more people emulating Jesus's actions and good works, this world would definitely be a better place....
2006-12-21 00:24:43 · answer #3 · answered by GL Supreme 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but not automatically.
Read thru the gospels again, and look at the order in which Jesus does things.
He isn't born of God and immediately begin teaching, nor is he born of God and just live his whole life by Love, which is what you are trying to do now.....
By inviting Him into your heart you begin to share His divine nature, and you become 'born of God', the first step.
But then what does He do?
We don't see Him doing anything again until He is 12, when He confounds the understanding of men who have been trained in the origial Torah for 7 years and then had experiences with the Torah, interpreting and applying it, for decades, His understanding of the original Torah flabbergasts them.
The age of 12 is particularly important in Hebrew culture, because it is 1 year before His Bar Mitsvah, the beginning of His knowledge of His adulthood, of His maleness in their culture.
To me this says that the second step of doing as He did is to learn the original Torah, with all of its esoteric meanings and puns and layers of meaning, to the point that we know it more thoroughly than we know our own adulthood, or our own genderhood in our culture. His knowledge of the Torah may have been 'enhanced' since He was there thru those events, but that doesn't mean that we can't learn it, and pay attention to how the waves of events that happened in the Torah are still happening today. So think about that.
You (along with many others) have gone on to the third step, living your life by Love. While living your life by Love, normally humans cannot believe that anyone is even trying. The world is seperated into two kinds of people, those owned by Jesus and those owned by the world (Jesus Himself says this), and those owned by the world can instantly tell that you are not one of them, and they will do their worst to make you 'fail' and be one of them. The point of living your life by Love is that sooner or later you are going to reach your limits and be broken....and then God will fix you, reforging you into a better vessel for His will. But trying to reforge you before you break is pointless. You won't just be broken once, it's going to happen over and over again. Go watch a smith making a tool out of iron ore - - - now think of the attitudes and the actions of those who are owned by the world as the fire. The Torah has tools for you to achieve better understanding and participation in this process, so getting into learning it now cannot hurt you at all.
2006-12-21 00:26:53 · answer #4 · answered by raxivar 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The answer is to associate with people who believe like you. The ones who have that look that you see when you look in the mirror. If they have faith, and walk with Jesus they will never let you down. They wouldn't know how to hurt you. He is a template to measure without judging yourself. As if a mathematical 'average'. Like in school, if you made one 'B' it brought your average down. Now the best thing is to keep it up as high as possible. It only takes faith the size of a mustard seed. Imagine if you will two people, whether it be friends, family, mates in a triangle with the Father of light. The closer they get to the light, the closer they come together. The father gave us one wing each. It takes two to fly. Peace.
2006-12-21 00:11:33 · answer #5 · answered by brys' 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
allot of people have been hurt by people professing to be christian, or they have seen allot of hypocrisy in the churches. This is all based on mans selfishness, yet for some reason God gets the blame. keep the faith sister don't let man and his opinion sway you, keep your eyes on Jesus
2006-12-21 00:00:45 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely! Why else would we be here? If we were so pathetic that we had no redeeming values, do you think our Father in Heaven would really care about us? He knows we have potential and wants us to get our lives in order.
2006-12-20 23:59:02 · answer #7 · answered by rndyh77 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Attempt to emulate, yes; duplicate, no
2006-12-21 00:01:06 · answer #8 · answered by lost and found 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋