Today, there is a war on men. And many men are losing it. But here is some amazing news: God is working in men. He has not abandoned men, though many around us have.
January 25, 2023
The recent big news in the world has been Prince Harry’s book—where he aired the dirty linen of the British royal family. It set records by selling 1.4 million copies in the first day. According to the Guinness World Records, the first-day sales total made Spare the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever.
He was given an advance of $20 million by Penguin Books, with a few more pennies coming in the future from sales royalties. So, there was that added incentive to publish the tell-all book.
Excerpts from the publication read like the pages of the Bible. Scripture tells us that royal families of Israel also had lots of dirty linen. They had wayward sons, kings who committed adultery, and even those who committed murder.
“The fact that Prince Harry doesn’t embrace Christianity seems evident by his actions.”
But dirty linen isn’t a peculiarity of royals. Many families have a weird uncle or someone who has secretly committed adultery, who is fornicating, or who has had financial misdealings, etc. But this dirty linen is never hung out for the public eye. The public aren’t interested in us common folks, as they are royalty.
One headline said that Prince Harry didn’t embrace the religion of Queen Elizabeth and his father, King Charles—although in the book he spoke of his mother, Princess Diana, guiding him from the grave. This is often the way the secular world handles grief. But it’s certainly not biblical. When somebody dies, they don’t become omnipresent—seeing what we’re doing here on earth and guiding us through life. The Scriptures speak of “mediums and familiar spirits” and forbid human involvement with them, as they are an abomination to the Lord (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27; Deuteronomy 18:9-14).
The fact that Prince Harry doesn’t embrace Christianity seems evident by his actions. In the world, when people are wronged, they don’t always keep it in the family. They rather want to justify themselves by giving their side of the story. That’s human nature. However, as Christians, we do things differently. When we’re wronged by a friend, by a coworker, or by our own family, we don’t tell the world. Rather, we confine it to telling God. We handle it with prayer. That’s the example given to us in Scripture. Look at what the Bible says of Jesus:
For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
“Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously… (1 Peter 2:20-23)
The reason we give it to God in prayer is because we rarely judge righteously. We only see things from our perspective—not the perspective of others whom we think wronged us. It is certainly true that there are two sides to every story.
“When we’re wronged, it’s a test of the depth of our love. Are we willing to forgive and forget? Are we willing to give it over to the Lord and let Him handle it for us?”
Whether or not Prince Harry was wronged by his family isn’t important. What’s important is the way he handled it (or mishandled it). He thinks that he is doing them a favor and that one day, in years to come, they will thank him. Perhaps not. He particularly humiliated the next heir to the throne—his own brother—and that may not be easy to patch up. “A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city,
And contentions are like the bars of a castle” (Proverbs 18:19).
Proverbs 17:14 offers another great life lesson: “The beginning of strife is like releasing water;
Therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts.”
Things get worse when we take things into our own hands.
After God’s Own Heart
The Bible says that King David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). And yet he was an adulterer and a murderer. How could he then be a man after God’s own heart? I believe it’s because David knew how to forgive. When his own son turned against him, he still loved him. When King Saul tried to kill him and hounded him like a dog, he had a forgiving spirit. That’s the heart of God.
When we’re wronged, it’s a test of the depth of our love. Are we willing to forgive and forget? Are we willing to give it over to the Lord and let Him handle it for us? That’s the wise thing to do…if we know what’s good for us.
SHARE THIS
Related Content
