• 

Let me preface this piece by saying this piece is not addressing dangerous, abusive relationships.

We all encounter people who ‘get on our nerves’. We all have people in our families, workplaces, and even churches who love to cause trouble, drama and who cause us high levels of stress and anxiety.

Some people have a chronic propensity to bring negativity to every interaction.

---

One of the most common and seemingly practical pieces of advice is to remove the people toxic people from our lives…but does the Bible support that teaching?

---

It sounds good in blog posts, self help books, sermons, and motivational speeches, but how does God expect us to handle the situation?

Notice that God told Ezekiel that He was sending Him to…well a nation of ‘toxic people’.

Ezekiel 2:3-5 (NKJV)

³ And He said to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. ⁴ For they are ^[a]impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ ⁵ As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.

God equipped Ezekiel for the challenge, and He is trying to equip us…

Ezekiel 3:7-9 (NKJV)

⁷ But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are ^[a]impudent and hard-hearted. ⁸ Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. ⁹ Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

---

Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus Christ, sent His disciples into ‘toxic situations’…

Matthew 10:16 (NKJV)

¹⁶ “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless^[a] as doves.

The fact is that Jesus gave us instructions for how to handle people who intentionally antagonize us…

Matthew 5:44 (NKJV)

^44 [a]But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

---

Notice that the Lord didn’t say avoid your enemies, block those who curse you, and remove those who spitefully use and persecute you from your life.

---

God expects us to strong enough to be light, and a positive spiritual influence to those who are ‘toxic’. The very person or persons that you have decided to eliminate from you life might have been specifically sent into your life to benefit from your light.

Let’s say you’re one of those people on social media who announce they are unfriending or blocking the ‘negative or messy’ people from their lives. These are people who haven’t unfriended or blocked you from their lives, even though they may be sometimes annoyed by your passion or love for God. You may be the only light they see in a sea of the craziness on social media.

God expects us to be strong and grow in wisdom, knowledge, understanding, love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control and faithfulness enough so we can represent His glory and image in every relationship and interaction.

This is when what God told us through the apostle Paul is the most powerful…

Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)

¹³ I can do all things through ^[a]Christ who strengthens me.

---

Before you get rid of someone toxic, why not pray for the strength, wisdom and patience to be a blessing to them?

---

What if Jesus had decided to reject the negative people in His earthly ministry?

Before you block their calls, what if blocked yours?

BE BLESSTIFIED!

• 

“I love everybody!”

How many times have you heard that? How many times have you said that? But, too many times our behavior doesn’t align with that affirmation.

The reason is that people do horrible things to hurt one another. We have all done something to give someone else a reason but not an excuse to hate us. We have all had people do things to hurt us: our loved ones, people who we care about, a group of people to which we belong, or people who we feel couldn’t defend themselves.

Many people have been neglected, abused, overlooked, bullied, betrayed, cheated, discriminated against, injured….even had loved ones murdered.

But God still demands in no uncertain terms that we love EVERYONE!

Matthew 5:43-48 (NKJV)

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ^44 [a]But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet your ^[b]brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the ^[c]tax collectors do so? ⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

But, sometimes people cross that line to do something to behave in a way that makes our spirits ache!

We know what God requires and say that we still love them, but God knows that’s not what’s really in our hearts.

In our hearts we want to see them hurt.

In our hearts we want to see them embarrassed.

In our hearts we want to see them punished.

In our hearts we want to see them put to shame.

If we aren’t careful, in our hearts we want to see them dead.

And, sometimes in our hearts we can want to see them condemned to hell.

The bible tells us to examine ourselves…

2 Corinthians 13:5  (NKJV)

⁵ Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you ^[a]are disqualified.

1 Corinthians 11:28-29  (NKJV)

²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks ^[a]in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the ^[b]Lord’s body.

The devil, the enemy, the accuser of the Saints wants to convince you that someone has done something so horrible, that their character, attitude and behavior are so bad that they deserve to be hated.

That’s condemnation. That’s judgement. And, that’s reserved for God. The Word of God is very clear in how we are to respond to people our flesh wants to hate…

2 Corinthians 13:5(NKJV)

⁵ Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you ^[a]are disqualified.

---

So ask yourself…”Who has the devil convinced me to hate, I just haven’t admitted to myself?”

Donald Trump?

Derek Chauvin?

Al Sharpton?

Barack Obama?

Colin Kaepernick?

Your boss?

Your ex-husband or wife?

The person who abused your son or daughter?

The person who murdered someone you love?

---

I know it’s not easy, but God doesn’t allow us to hate them. He doesn’t love them any less than He loves us. He created them in His image too. And, He wants them to be reconciled to Him too. It’s our responsibility to pray for that and work for that. Once your enemy truly repents and becomes reconciled to Him, he or she is no longer God’s enemy…and they are no longer your enemy. Do you really pray for those who you feel don’t deserve prayer?

2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward ^[a]us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (NKJV)

¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not ^[a]imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

So I challenge you to be honest and ask yourself, “Do I hate anyone?”

If so, ask God to forgive you for hating them and repent by refusing to feed and fuel your anger towards them.

Then, call out their names every day and pray for them.

Pray for God to soften their hearts.

Pray for God to kill any bad seeds that’s been planted inside them and give increase to any good seeds… seeds of faith in God through Yeshua the Messiah, seeds of repentance, seeds of salvation, and seeds of fellowship with God and a life of bearing much good fruit for Him.

Then…leave the rest to God.

THINGS IT’S OKAY WITH GOD FOR US TO HATE ABOUT PEOPLE…

DON’T BE TOO HARD ON SOME OF YOUR ‘HATERS’…

NO MATTER WHAT THEY DID, GOD DOESN’T ALLOW YOU TO HATE THEM…

SO YOU THINK THEY GOT WHAT THEY DESERVED…REALLY???

HERE’S A HARMLESS WAY TO VENT YOUR HATE…

WHY WE SHOULD PRAY FOR VINDICATION INSTEAD OF TRYING TO GET REVENGE…

WHEN YOU INSPIRE YOUR HATERS…

3 SIGNS YOUR HATERS REALLY SEE THE VALUE IN YOU…

BE BLESSTIFIED!