Have you ever been hurt by someone's words?

Have you ever been hurt by something someone on Facebook or other "social network" has said to you?  Have they managed to make you feel small and insignificant somehow?  Well, if you said “yes” then I can certainly empathize!  

Often, when we feel hurt from the barbs of others, it’s because we have issues from our past that need to be dealt with.  If you know this to be true, please seek professional help.  After all, if you break your arm or you have a kidney infection, you don’t try to hide it; you go to the hospital for help.  If your emotions are broken for some reason, you need to get to the bottom of the problem so that you can be whole again.  

The enemy knows what causes you pain, and he will constantly use your brokenness against you, goading you, pushing your buttons. But realize this: God cannot use “broken vessels!”  If you concentrate all your efforts and energy on the pain someone caused you, then your thoughts remain on YOU all day, instead of God!  How can you be "all you were meant to be" if you refuse to take charge of what's bothering you and move on so you can continue to learn and grow for YHWH?  Don’t allow someone to do this to you!  Break free!  (Please see our article which provides suggestions for healing broken emotions:  http://www.therefinersfire.org/healing_from_abuse.htm)

Scripture tells us who we are:

Psalm 139: 13 For you fashioned my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I thank you because I am awesomely made, wonderfully; your works are wonders -I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes could see me as an embryo, but in your book all my days were already written; my days had been shaped before any of them existed.

Jeremiah 29: 11 For I know what plans I have in mind for you,' says ADONAI,'plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future. 12 When you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you. 13 When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly; 14 and I will let you find me,' says ADONAI. 'Then I will reverse your exile. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have driven you,' says ADONAI, 'and bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.'

Ephesians 1: 3. Blessed be Elohim, the Father of our Master Y’shua the Mashiyach who has blessed us with all blessings of the Spirit in heaven by the Mashiyach:  4. According as He had previously chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we might be Set Apart and without blame before Him; and, in love, as that before our beginnings for Himself;  5. And adopted us for sons, in Y’shua the Mashiyach as was agreeable to His will:  6. That the glory of His grace might be glorified which He poured upon us by his Beloved One;  7. By whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins by his blood, according to the riches of his grace  8. Which has abounded in us, in all wisdom and all spiritual understanding.  9. And he has made us know the mystery of his will, which he had before determined in himself to accomplish  

10. In the stewardship [1] of the fullness of times[2]; that all things might again be made new in the Mashiyach, things in heaven and (things) on earth.  11. And in him we are elected, according as that before our beginnings [3] and willed, who works all things according to the counsel of his desire;  12. That we should be they who first hoped in the Mashiyach, to the honor of his glory.  13. In whom you also have heard the Word of Truth which is the Good News of your life, and have believed in him; and have been sealed with the Ruach haKodesh who was promised;  14. Who is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of them that are alive and for the praise of his glory. (AENT)

[1]  English versions insert “dispensation” here to bolster “dispensationalism” and “replacement” theologies which were invented by Christian theologians to syncretize Hellenism (cultural values of early Catholic church founders) into Paul’s letters.  In both Aramaic and Greek the correct term is stewardship.

[2]   Fullness of times or the completion of the acharit hayamim (the latter days) is a theme that Paul often visits (compare Romans 16:25; 1 Cor 7:26; 1 Thess. 5:1-3; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1).  The Shlichim assumed Y’shua would return as Mashiyach ben David, even in their lifetimes.

[3] Literally, “as that before our beginnings” rather than “predestined” which was inserted to bolster the “predestination theology” that some are created specifically for hell and others for heaven.  Paul is referring to the neshama (spirit of man) that is known of by YHWH from before the beginning of time; however, man’s spiritual “destiny” is also a matter of personal choice.  Joshua 24:20 “If you forsake YHWH, and serve strange elohim, then he will turn and do you hurt and consume you after that he has done you good.” Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The  son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

Scripture tells us where our focus needs to be:

Philippians 4: 8. Finally, my Brothers, what things are true, and what things are honest, and what things are just, and what things are pure, and what things are beautiful, and what things are honorable in reporting, and deeds of praise and virtuousness; on these your thoughts should focus.  9. What things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, these do you: and the Elohim of peace will be with you.

Philippians 2: 1. If, therefore, you have consolation in the Mashiyach or if a blending of hearts in love or if a fellowship of the Spirit, or if compassions and sympathies;  2. make my joy perfected by having one agreement and one love and one soul and one mind.  3. And do nothing in strife or in vain glory; but, with humbleness of mind, let each regard his neighbor as better than himself.  4. And let not each be anxious (only) for himself, but everyone also for his neighbor.  5. And think you so in yourselves, as Y’shua the Mashiyach also thought; 6. who, as he was in the likeness of Elohim, did not regard it sinful to be the coequal of Elohim;  7. yet disinherited himself and assumed the likeness of a servant, and was in the likeness of men and was found in fashion as a man;  8. and he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the stake.

Matthew 5:5. Blessed are they who are meek because they will inherit the earth. (Psalm 37:11; 149:4) 6. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness because they will be satisfied. (Zephaniah 2:3; Psalm 11:3-7; Isaiah 66:11, 12)  7. Blessed are they who are merciful because mercies will be upon them. (Psalm 18:25; 2 Samuel 22:26)  8. Blessed are they who are pure in their hearts because they will see Elohim. (Psalm 24:4; 51:10; 15:1, 2)  9. Blessed are they who make peace because they will be called the sons of Elohim. Psalm 122:8, 9; Isaiah 26:12; Psalm 7:3

(Notice what the above verses do  NOT say?  They do NOT say, “Blessed are those who live to make you feel bad" or who like to tell you, you are dumb for not doing things their way.  They do not say "Blessed are those who reject YHWH, Torah or YHWH’s Divine Messiah!”)

Scripture tells us that those who live to put us down are not behaving in a godly manner:

James 4:11-12 11. Speak not against each other, my Brothers; for he that speaks against his brother, or judges his brother speaks against Torah and judges Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of Torah, but its judge.[1]  12. There is one Torah-giver[2] and Judge who can make alive and (can) destroy: but who are you that you judge your neighbor? (AENT)  

[1]  If you add your own judgments to those already established in the Torah of YHWH, then you have judged Torah as insufficient, and are not allowing it to be your judge.

[2]  One Torah Giver who gives One Torah.  The halacha (way to observe Torah) is revealed by the Ruach haKodesh, and demonstrated in Mashiyach.  The concept of “two torahs”   one oral and one written   is the basis of authority on which the Rabbinate operates.  “The Rabbis” wrote their own “oral Torah” and give themselves the authority to interpret it; unfortunately, their oral Torah often speaks against both the Written Torah and haMashiyach.  On the other hand, Christian theologians have made up their own “New Testament” based on their own non-Torah cultural value systems which makes void Torah and diminishes the true goal of Mashiyach.

James 1:22. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only; and do not deceive yourselves.  23. For if any man will be a hearer of the Word and not a doer of it, he will be like one who sees his face in a mirror:  24. for he sees himself and passes on and forgets what a man he was.  25. But everyone that looks upon the perfect Torah of liberty and lives fully in it, is not a hearer of something to be forgotten, but a doer[1] of the things; and he will be blessed in his work.  26. And if any one thinks that he worships Elohim and does not subdue his tongue, but his heart deceives him; his worship is desolate.  27. For the worship that is pure and Set Apart before Elohim the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction; and:  that one keep himself without blemish from the world. (AENT)

[1]  While there are two different Aramaic words for “hear” and “do” the word for “hear” in Aramaic also means “to do”; the Hebrew equivalent, shema, means the same.  Ya’akov’s Hebraic thought and intention are clearly represented in this verse.

Hebrews 13:1. Let love for the Brothers dwell among you.  2. And do not forget kindness to strangers; for by this some have been privileged to entertain Messengers without even knowing!

Scripture also tells us what WE need to do about those who have hurt us:

Romans 12: 17. And repay to no man evil for evil: but let it be your study to do good before all men.  18. And if possible, so far as it depends on you, live in peace with every man.  19. And be you not avengers of yourselves, my beloved: but give place to wrath. For it is written: If you do not execute judgment for yourself, I will execute judgment for you, says Elohim.[1]  20. And if your adversary be hungry, feed him: and if he be thirsty, give him drink. For if you do these things, you will heap coals of fire on his head.  21. Do not be overcome by evil; but overcome evil with good. (AENT)

[1] D’varim 32:35; Psalm 94:1; Prov. 20:22   There are no directives from B’resheet/Genesis to Revelation which counsels anyone to take vengeance upon their adversaries.  YHWH says, “vengeance belongs to Me”; He will judge and resolve all matters according to His Righteous Judgment.  The idea of taking vengeance upon others, as in jihad or holy war against the infidels, is rooted in fear and heathenism by those who put their faith in self rather than in Alaha (Elohim).

Here is what YHWH thinks of most “religious” types (including those who love to sit behind their keyboards to belittle you):

Isaiah 29: 13 Then Adonai said: "Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their 'fear of me' is just a mitzvah of human origin 14 therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people with astounding and amazing things, until the 'wisdom' of their 'wise ones' vanishes, and the 'discernment' of their 'discerning ones' is hidden away."

1 John 4: 19. Let us, therefore, love Elohim; because he has first loved us.  20. And if any one will say, I love Elohim, and yet hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother who is visible, how can he love Elohim who is invisible?  21. And this command we have received from him, that whoever loves Elohim, must love also his brother.

So, fret no longer!  Don't allow ANYONE to make you feel inferior!  YHWH loves you, and He wants you to be whole for Him and whole-hearted towards Him.  Don't give mean people the power to take this away from you. YOU know who you are!

And honestly, what "they" think of you doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things....