Greetings!
VINDICATION
Oh, how my humanity longs for it!
Do you know what it is like to have vindication withheld from you? It can be the source of the greatest pain of your entire life.
Vindication is being absolved from blame or false accusation. It means having your name cleared especially with those you love and care for. But oftentimes God withholds vindication in order to refine us-ouch!
In my personal life of 72 years every compliment, every pat on the back and all the praise resulted in no growth in my Christian life, but every kick, every hurt, every criticism, every false accusation led to my spiritual growth. Very interesting!
So never dismiss the possibility that the withholding of vindication is God’s way of refining you. Don’t despise the means God may choose to drive you to seek His face and acceptance only.
In this way you may discover that the worst things that happened to you are in actuality the best things that ever happened to you, because it becomes a tool in God’s hands to bring you to Him and Him alone, for your comfort. Genesis 50:20
In my journey, I have found that there are two kinds of vindication: external and internal. External-the kind we all naturally want-is when somebody congratulates you. They say, “You were right; others were wrong.” Wow. What a good feeling!
Jesus never received that kind of vindication. The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes never gave Jesus any vindication. And He was right and true in everything He did, but they still misrepresented Him, in order to hurt and harm His influence.
Internal vindication is between you and God alone. If God gives you vindication by His spirit due to your true repentance, then you should be the happiest person on the planet. It doesn’t get better then knowing that you please God in your present circumstances, because God sees you for who you truly are and not as others portray you. That is how Jesus got His joy, His peace, His assurance, His confidence. It is the only place we should go to for our joy, peace and assurance. Why? Because God knows the whole truth-what a comfort that is.
Jesus avoided, eluded and shunned the glory that comes from man, but wanted and received the praise and glory that comes from God, how about us? John 5:44
Please enjoy with me this setting in nature that God created to draw us to Him!
Escaping Back to God
Jim Hohnberger & Sally Hohnberger
Empowered Living Ministries
