Bless Those Who Persecute You

By Jacky Julyan

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse….. Romans 12:14

In the year 2006 I was under extreme pressure in the flat that I lived in. I was not very well and my living conditions were so poor. We had rats, we had rubbish outside of our door, we had drugs and all night parties constantly. The landlord was crooked and he lied that I hadn’t paid the rent when I had so I couldn’t move out and find anything else. 

I was so angry. I couldn’t contain my anger. When the two sons of the Landlord came to live in the building I didn’t know they were his sons. I cursed and swore about the Landlord not knowing it was their father. They looked at each other and smiled and said to each other ‘She’s right’. There was some slight consolation but not much.

David the elder son explained they had a very dysfunctional relationship with their father, even though he was a multi-millionaire. He had rejected his sons and embraced the daughters. They too felt the brunt of neglect of my landlord their father.

I continued to curse day in and day out, there was rubbish coming into my bath up the plughole and the mess was just too much for me. I was in absolute despair recovering from a breakdown and in deep depression.

Then one day as I was cursing to myself down the street going to the shops the LORD spoke to me. 

He said ‘Bless them’. 

I stopped dead in my tracks knowing I had heard right and that God was right. But in my frame of mind which was quite rebellious at the time due to so much stress I said to God 

‘You’ve got to be kidding!!! Bless them!!!!’. 

But in my heart I knew the LORD was right but it was the last thing I wanted to do. I continued to mutter under my breath and the LORD spoke again to me. He never raised His voice, He wasn’t angry with me He was just giving me instructions, wise instructions. 

He spoke the second time ‘Bless them’.

So I did. I blessed them every day, thanked God for my neighbors, thanked God for all the trouble. This went on for sometime. Things went on from bad to worse and I despaired even of myself but I did what God asked me to do which was to Bless them! 

I can say with honesty it was really really hard! It was very uncomfortable praising God and blessing those who were causing so much harm and detriment.

Then slowly and I mean really slowly I became friends with the elder son of the Landlord, David, and his girlfriend who was expecting her first child. David opened up about his difficult relationship with his father, my landlord. The communication between us was really neighborly and when his daughter was born I watched her grow up and she would come round to see my dog when she was three years old. There was a little strain with the younger brother but David was always there to sort it out.

Over the years and I mean that literally as I was there 7 years and 7 months one by one everyone moved out. The noise went, and even though the ceiling fell in too, slowly, things got fixed. 

My daughter then moved out and went to live in Australia which was hard as she was my only family, she went not just for one year but two!! 

Eventually the landlord made this run down old mansion, with 7 flats, into luxury apartments. The flat I rented is now worth 1/4 million pounds because of the view over the sea, which was the only blessing until I had building works in the gardens and dust and noise until my last year in that place.

The LORD did so much healing in this place but this is just a snippet of a situation which to me was impossible. 

The biggest change was within my own heart. This flat is the longest period I have stayed in one place as I have been made homeless many times and moved a lot, over 50 times.

When I finally moved out of this flat into another town I went to hand the keys back at the office and David the elder son was now working for his father and he gave me a wonderful hug with tears in his eyes knowing how much I had gone through in this place I lived. I made peace with the son of the landlord so in effect made peace with myself through the whole ordeal. I knew God was in all of it.

Truly it is a change of heart within ourselves first that is the first challenge whatever the situation.

I Hope you encouraged by God’s Word especially when we actually put it into practice and see the results, though not straight away. 

God’s grace is sufficient for every trial.

God Bless