Last night I was working and I felt smitten with mistreatment. I worked an 8hr shift, and management did not allow me to take lunch until the 6.5 hour mark of the shift (still having to shove an additional break in there somewhere at the end as well).
This was not the alarming part to me by itself however, the mistreatment part for me was when knowing I am a Diabetic (insulin-dependent) they seemed unconcerned that it was creating havoc on my system to wait that long. So I told them about it, and asked to be able to go to lunch at the 6.25 hr. mark of my shift. They said, well just give me 15 more minutes and then I will let you go. So, I waited, internally unquietly.
Well, here's the thing...I felt right in asking (notice how I said "FELT"), but in my rightness came a sense of myself in asking. In other words I said it as if I was not the Kings son, but repressing the Kings authority in demanding mine in Him. I was representing my mistreatment and my feelings of discomfort in it; not my Lord and Savior!
Now before people go off and say, "Well, you do have a right to eat as a diabetic." This is not the problem here. The problem is that I stepped into notice and reaction of my mistreatment as if it was authorized by God to oblige my feelings. Honestly, I can work out my healthy response to this issue on my side if God graces me up in many different senerios! Why would I doubt that? I just needed to work it out is all, remaining in Him. Yes, I should note to them my health concerns, but only in His demeanor filled with grace and respect and gentleness.
This Morning I was thinking about it, because the manager seemed disturbed by my actions of abrupt confrontation, for I did respect her and yet gentle? Not so much! God was convicting me of my witness, so I prayed about it and God had me up at 4:00 am reading my Bible.
Oh, that precious Book! It did it again - it was active and alive in me! I was reading Matthew 14:12 and the story of King Herod and John the Baptist, where the King wanted to kill John but was afraid of the people, and a woman asks for His head on a plate after talking with her mother (I'm shortening the story quickly here), and Herod concedes to killing John in prison - thus, beheading him and placing his head on a plate. My Scripture reference chimes in there in the storyline....this is where John's disciples come in the prison and quietly take the headless body and then they go tell Jesus of the news of his death.
The disciples of John came quietly, without noise of publicity, to take up the corpse and bury him; and then they go tell Jesus. The principle God was showing me? To make no noise when unjustly treated, hide the evidence of one's own ill-treatment, and tell the Lord Jesus. I asked myself how would I have handled my work situation differently if I had followed that principle?
Too often, when we are mistreated, we broadcast the proof of our ill-treatment. God asked me if I was guilty of this...He also took the time to show me the blessings in my spiritual warfare to fight to delight the ears and eyes of God over the world's acceptance and my own sense of rightness, even as I am in Christ. It is this that I come to a revelation where the rubber meets the road in a practical sense in living as Christ lived His life on earth. To defer things to His Father, and submit to His will (all things). Thus, my Praise prayer this morning goes as such:
"Lord, this day, once more I praise You! I have shared with You my mistreatment of my lunch break schedule, help me quietly work it out on my side of the ledger to appropriate what I can do to secure a healthy response to it, both physically and spiritually.
Lord, You are all and in all things, thus I place my life in Your teachings, and rebuking, and corrections, and training, and I ask You to establish my steps in this practical matter. You are faithful as my God and Father and You do not shift on me like the world's approval - shifting and sinking like quick-sand. Thus, there would be no point in pursuing that anyway! Thank You for showing me in Matthew Your godly principle to stave off public notice and to pursue, instead, Your grace and protection and empowerment. Lord, I thank You for giving me Your peace and for giving me confidence in You in my character and demeanor to do Your will in the simple and complex things in my life.
Let Your light shine thru me Lord, and allow me to be the salt of the earth as well, so that Your glory will be seen in all the things I do. I Praise Your Name this Morning Lord, and thank You again for Your sovereign care - in Jesus Name - AMEN!" ....Praise His Name!
