When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
    In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me?

All day long they twist my words;
    all their schemes are for my ruin.
They conspire, they lurk,
    they watch my steps,
    hoping to take my life.
Because of their wickedness do not let them escape;
    in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

Psalm 56:3-7

Words can hurt, even worse our own words turned against us. There are few ways to hurt a man with words faster and in a more sure way than to take his own intentions and reverse them on him. Multiply that by the number of people you can get on your side against him and the pain can increase by that much!

But for the believer, there is no fear even in that pain because God will not let a single evil go by without his justice coming upon it. The greater fear is in the punishment that will come from betraying God and pleading to the world for mercy from the temporary pain in exchange for eternal damnation.

Suffering is not virtuous, but perseverance is a fruit produced by the Spirit dwelling in our hearts.

Ethan Kirl