Conflict Resolved
Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2018 by
By Terrance Andrews
I walked into the school one day and found myself faced with John in conflict with his lifelong friend that “did him wrong.” John said, “I’m done with that fool!” So, we stepped into a side room and began to talk it over. John said “I know I can’t hate him because it will affect my relationship with Christ.” You see John has been a new Christian for about 3 months and has been plugged into Church and is really doing great. This is the first real issue I had seen him face since becoming a Christian. I looked forward to the opportunity to guide him through this. Knowing that most teenager “things” are always the worst “thing” to ever happen to them. We talked for a full hour. His emotions settled some. I decided to take him to one of my favorite passages in the Word, “Love your enemies and bless those who persecute you,” Matthew 5:44.
“Wow” he said, “how do you do that?” It’s a lot easier said than done for sure. I asked him if he had ever heard that we should love our neighbor? “Oh yeah, I know that!” I explained that this is an extension of that verse. We are to love our neighbor and sometimes that neighbor might just happen to have done us wrong. They might even be considered our enemy. I explained that we are even told to pray for our enemies. He said, “that’s crazy you’re telling me I now must love them and pray for them?” Well, I said it only makes sense to pray for those that you love. Our time was up, but I could see a total change in his attitude.
Several days passed and I began to wonder what had come of the situation. I was at school again and eager to find out. As I walked in all I could think about is how the two buddies where doing. Up comes John and he says, “We need to talk!” “Sounds good,” I said. As we walked into the study hall room, I notice his buddy sitting there, I wondered to my self what in the world is going on here. They sat me down and told me that all was good between them. John’s friend said “thanks for telling him to pray for me even when I had done him wrong.” The friend told me he wanted to learn more about this Jesus guy that John’s always talking about. John is just now beginning his life long relationship with Jesus and he has already learned how important his actions and attitudes are to the people around him. But there is more to the story. John’s influence has led his friend to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now these two lifelong friends are following Christ together. Thank you for making these ministry opportunities possible. God is good.