Thursday, October 13, 2011

Finding Good in the Bad

Wish good for those who harm you;
wish them well and do not curse them.
~Romans 12:14

It would be hard to find someone worse than Judas.  Some say he was a good man with a backfired strategy.  I don't buy that.  The Bible says, "Judas... was a thief" (John 12:6).  The man was a crook.  Somehow he was able to live in the presence of God and experience the miracles of Christ and remain unchanged.  In the end he decided he'd rather have money than a friend, so he sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver... Judas was a scoundrel, a cheat, and a bum.  How could anyone see him any other way?

I don't know, but Jesus did.  Only inches from the face of his betrayer, Jesus looked at him and said, "Friend, do what you came to do" (Matthew 26:50).  What Jesus saw in Judas as worthy of being called a friend, I can't imagine.  But I do know that Jesus doesn't lie, and in that moment he saw something good in a very bad man...

He can help us do the same with those who hurt us.

~From Grace for the Moment, by Max Lucado

2 comments:

  1. What perspective.

    If you only knew what was happening in my life right now, you'd know that God needed me to read this.

    Thank you - for whatever prompted you to post this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It spoke volumes to me too- glad to pass along the blessing!

    ReplyDelete

What's on your mind?