Have you ever helped someone who has been beaten up by life?

Life isn’t easy.  It is full of bumps and bruises.  I would be willing to guess you have a bruise on you right now.  When a child gets a “boo boo”, they want someone to show them love.  We kiss it and make it feel better. We put a band-aid on it as their “red badge of courage.”  We do whatever we can to help their hurt.  Jesus tells the story of a man who was hurt.  In Luke 10:30 we read, “Jesus replied and said, ‘A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead.’”  You remember the story.  The “godly” people would not help, but the “ungodly” Samaritan did.  We can use this story to ask ourselves about how we view others.  Do I view them from a God view or a ME view?  When we look for a lesson and see all the Samaritan does, maybe it is this: help them get back on their feet.

Have you ever met someone who has been beat up by life?   John 8:3 tells about just such a woman, “And the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst.”  The bruise is public exposure of something being done that she was ashamed of.  You’ve been there, right?  You’ve been embarrassed and even worse someone used a “loud speaker” and told the world what you did. Yet, they too, have probably done something they don’t want made public.  Do you remember what Jesus did for the woman?  He reminded her she could start over. 

Have you ever met someone who has been beaten up by life?  Acts 3:1–2 reads, “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a certain man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple.”  This man was in need.  He thought he needed money.  People in need don’t always know what they really need.  When my mother had a work accident, she only saw her arm get broke.  It wasn’t until later she noticed her finger missing.  She didn’t know what she really needed to be concerned about.  What this man really needed was healing, physically emotionally, and spiritually.

Have you ever met someone who has been beaten up by life?  The Bible tells us that even after Jesus was tempted in the desert and defeated the temptations, Satan waited for another opportunity.  Satan never leaves us alone.  He didn’t leave Peter alone.  Jesus says in Luke 22:31, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.”  We know the struggle of doing right.  The importance of fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ cannot be over-emphasized.  This fellowship helps us to heal the “bruises” Satan is constantly causing us.  We can overcome.  We can help others.  We have what they need to hear from us, encouragement and love.  Jesus told Peter he would fall for the temptation but he would return and be welcomed back.