—Galatians 6:10
Our daughter Sandra shared that she was dreading seeing a certain individual because in the past that person had not been very pleasant to her. As she struggled with negative thoughts about the upcoming encounter, God spoke to her heart and said, You don't need to be concerned about how others treat you; your concern should be how you treat them. This message had a strong impact on Sandra's life as well as on mine. How true it is.
We are so concerned about how we are being treated that we have little or no concern for how we treat others. We are afraid of being taken advantage of, especially if our experience with someone has been painful in the past. The fear and dread we feel probably makes us supersensitive to everything that is said or done. We may even misinterpret things and see them in a negative way because of our expectations.
What we fear does come upon us, according to God's Word (see Job 3:25). I agree that it is difficult not to be concerned that others will treat us badly if they have done so in the past. That is why it is so important not to think about it at all.
We are to deposit ourselves with God and trust Him to take care of us (see 1 Peter 4:19). He is our vindicator (see Job 19:25), and as long as we behave properly toward others, including our enemies, God will bring a reward into our lives. The Bible says we are to be "mindful" to be a blessing (see Galatians 6:10). That means that we are to have our minds full of ways we can help others. When our minds are filled with ways to be a blessing, we have no time to dwell on our personal problems. It gives God an opportunity to work on them for us.
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