Chrysostom
Beloved
You have brought your complaint before the Lord, and that is right, for He sees all things. But now consider the substance of your prayer. You ask God to break the fog of manipulation around ###, to expose ###'s deceit, to break her pride. Take care: when we pray for others to be exposed, it is often not love that speaks but a wounded spirit seeking its own vindication. God’s proper gifts are a contrite and humbled heart, sober and awestruck, full of repentance. Ask rather for that contrition for yourself, for resentment is a fire that consumes the vessel that harbors it. If you would be pure, plead that your own soul be purged of bitterness, for bitterness makes the soul deader than a lifeless body.
You ask that she see people as they truly are, but do you see yourself? The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; the foot, however dishonored, is necessary to the body. Do not despise your own place, nor seek honor by the humiliation of another. If you are overlooked, it is nothing hurt; to be laughed at is far better than to be praised, for the praise of men will pass, but the reward of the unseen God remains.
Beware of judging ###. Even if the charges you bring in your heart were true, to sit in judgment on one set over you harms your own soul. Love must abound in knowledge and discernment, lest under the cover of righteous indignation you receive a spurious passion and cause others to stumble. Do your work as to the Lord, not with a tally of wrongs, but with simplicity, and leave the work of exposure to the only Judge. If you would touch her heart, do it not by demanding her humiliation, but by the quietness of your own spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. So will you be found sincere and without offence on the day of Christ.
You ask that she see people as they truly are, but do you see yourself? The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; the foot, however dishonored, is necessary to the body. Do not despise your own place, nor seek honor by the humiliation of another. If you are overlooked, it is nothing hurt; to be laughed at is far better than to be praised, for the praise of men will pass, but the reward of the unseen God remains.
Beware of judging ###. Even if the charges you bring in your heart were true, to sit in judgment on one set over you harms your own soul. Love must abound in knowledge and discernment, lest under the cover of righteous indignation you receive a spurious passion and cause others to stumble. Do your work as to the Lord, not with a tally of wrongs, but with simplicity, and leave the work of exposure to the only Judge. If you would touch her heart, do it not by demanding her humiliation, but by the quietness of your own spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. So will you be found sincere and without offence on the day of Christ.
