You need people in your life who CAN … drag you down …

I know, I know. That’s the very opposite of what we are usually taught. “Surround yourself with positive people,” we are told. And of course, there is a place for this, but there is something else you need to know IF … you’re a disciple of Jesus…

In a perfect world, everyone would treat us just the way we want to be treated. I would practice the Golden Rule, and they would respond in the same manner.

But there is something you need to know about your Heavenly Father. He has little, if any, interest in making your dreams come true, nor does He concern Himself with what your “passion” is.

On the contrary, God is first and foremost concerned with His agenda, not yours. He does not to exist to make your dreams come true. (NOTE: almost every recorded dream in the Bible had to do with God’s agenda, and was NOT a personal dream about someone getting what they “dreamed” for).

Bearing that in mind, it is important to understand that His primary goal for your life is not an issue of CAREER, as much as it is an issue of CHARACTER. Put simply, God wants us to become like Jesus. This, Romans 8:29 states, is our “destiny.”

“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

And as John writes in 1 John 22:6 - “He that says he abides in Jesus ought to walk as He walked.”

Part of what it means to become like Jesus is learning to respond appropriately to people who MISTREAT us. It really is His will that you learn to bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you, and do GOOD to those who HATE you…

These are people we are taught to avoid. But what we fail to recognize is that we cannot grow in the faith without such adversaries. WE NEED THE HATERS IN OUR LIFE! We need people who will curse and mistreat us.

And why is that?

Well, if you are to become like Jesus, you must learn to respond to your adversaries as He did. That means if they crucify you, you have to find a way to pray for them: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

READ THIS CAREFULLY - if you get your feelings hurt, and are more concerned about the OFFENSE than the OFFENDER, you have a long ways to go in your journey toward Christ-likeness.

But do NOT be discouraged.

In all honesty, it takes a long time to reach this level of maturity. But know this: that is the goal - that is where God wants to take you.

He wants to bring you to a place where that person you work with who constantly irritates you, offends you, talks behind your back, drags your name through the mud … becomes someone who you can LOVE … And that love will manifest in a reaction to that person in a way that heaps coals of fire on their head (Romans 12).

Think for a moment about the one who brings pain to your life, perhaps someone at work. Right now, thanks God for them, for they are nothing less than an instrument in God’s hand, being used by HIm to transform you into the image of Jesus.

ONE FINAL WORD… God knows that most of us are helpless in pulling this off. The very thought of loving someone who keeps stabbing you in the back is a difficult concept to accept, a tough pill to swallow.

But… do with this commandment what you should do with all the others. Go to God and admit your helplessness. He does not want you to be determined to do these things. He does NOT want you to muster up all the willpower you can. He wants you to come into His presence like a helpless child, receive His grace to “pull this off.”