The God Who Can Move Hearts

The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. Proverbs 21:1

The workplace can be a very interesting experiment in toleration at times. Most often, when you choose or are forced into a work situation, you don't get to choose the people you'll be working with. Normally, when we first meet people, we can be quite cordial and overlook other people's shortcomings. As time goes by, however, it becomes harder and harder to not harbor anger towards some co-workers. One time I found myself in a situation where my lead person responded to just about every sentence out of my mouth with a cut down. I had to work with him every other month and dreaded those months. I finally got to the point where I turned it over to God and asked him to change my heart towards him. I think that experience, more than any other, taught me that you will only find peace by trusting that God can move the heart of those who harm you.

Sometimes God does this by moving the heart of the "king" who is harming you. The pharaoh, mentioned in Exodus in the Bible, is a good example of just how God might move the king's heart by breaking his stone cold heart. So God can make him fearful of hurting you when you can't convince him to stop hurting you. God can do this by using your words, as He did Moses', or through His mighty deeds.

Consequently, He can make the person send you out of his or her presence, like when Pharaoh commanded the Israelites to leave his presence, or God can remove the person from the scene. God told the Israelites that the Egyptians would not harass them any longer after He had drowned Pharaoh. In my own situation, the lead person, who had worked there for 20 years, left shortly after I began to ask God to change my heart. Not too much longer after that, God released me to quit my job of 13 years to go do chaplaincy work. God can set you free from the "king" or remove the king from your presence.

God can also confuse the wisdom of the people that oppose you. In Gen. 19.11, God miraculously blinded the eyes of those seeking to harm Lot in Sodom. He also used natural means to confuse the enemies of God's children when He confused King David's son Absalom with foolish advice (2 Sam. 16). Likewise, God confused the Army of the Syrians, so they became frightened and ran away (2 Kings 7.6).

You may be facing a boss, co-worker or some other person who is a master of causing havoc. No matter what you do, they turn every situation into an occasion to harm you. You may not be able to outwit, outplay, outlast their game, but God can. God can turn their attention from you; He can confuse all their plans; and He can use their plans to bring about their own destruction (1Sam 14. 20).

Lastly, God is able to move your enemies so they'll help you. This is exactly what God did when He moved Cyrus and Darius to return what others had taken away from Israel. God didn't accomplish this by making them robots. He used reason and the law and customs of the king to change their heart (Ezra 5.17). In the same way, God is able to move your most committed enemies to help you.

I'm thankful that God is able to move hearts, because it keeps me from taking matters into my own hands. First, this understanding keeps me from taking revenge. Since God is all powerful and just, I can be sure He'll take care of my situation. Secondly, I don't have to hold onto unforgiveness, because I know that God is the judge and my protector. Lastly, I can be sure that God can give me the power to not hurt others when I am suffering. I don't know about you, but I get cantankerous when someone has deeply wounded me or I've had a bad day at work. But God is able to move my heart, so I won't lash out at the ones I love when I'm hurting. He can do this for me in the minor pains I suffer, and I know God can do the same for you even if you're in a more difficult situation.

Ultimately, you can't convince an evil person to willingly stop hurting you, so reliance on God should be your first choice of action. You can pray that God would make them so fearful of Him that they couldn't hurt you or that God would confuse the wisdom of those seeking your harm. You can pray that God would remove them or you from the situation or that God would change their heart to help you. God has given us a mandate to bring justice to the earth. We do this because you will only find peace by trusting that God can move the heart of those who harm you.

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