Deliverance and Vindication

 I believe all of us have had problems with people who attack us personally and want to cause us harm by spreading inaccurate information. It is a very painful situation that can cause us a lot of trouble. However, what are we supposed to do? Of course, Jesus made it very clear that we are not to try to hurt these people by basically doing the same things to them. Yes, we can defend ourselves from further harm, but that still leaves a bad situation many times.

David had this happen to him many times as he served as the king of Israel. People were out to get rid of him by force or by slandering him and his actions. David did the right thing when these situations developed. (Psalm 54:1) David prayed to God and asked Him to save him by His name and to vindicate him by His strength. That is exactly the type of prayer we all need to pray.

When we are attacked and slandered by others, we are powerless as individuals to correct these situations. We do not have the authority to hurt them, have them put in jail, or to otherwise cause them to stop and treat us right. However, God can do that by His name. God's name is His character, His authority, and His power. God is holy, so He knows how to set things right. He has all authority to bring people to justice, and He has the power to enforce His authority. Therefore, we give our situation to Him.

Then, we ask for His vindication. Again, we can't clear up all of the lies that have been told about us. Those lies spread very far and very quickly. However, God can vindicate us by His strength. He can show others that we didn't really say or do the wrong things by standing up for our character. That way, people know when they hear the falsehoods that they could not be true about us. If we try to do that ourselves, we appear to be self serving by just trying to cover things up.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 55-57..