Assuming Good Intent

Assuming Good Intent

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

It was the end of an exhaustingly long week, and Aaron and I were taking a few minutes to catch up over a warm cup of tea after the kids had gone to bed. As I started bellyaching about a small, ongoing irritation I had with a friend, his words brought me up short: “Assume good intent.”

Well, humph. A flood of irritation swept through my body at his gentle admonition, but even as I scowled at him, I knew he was right. I mentally replayed the irritating situation— assuming good intentions by my friend in the scenario—and found my hurt fading away. My friend wasn’t being purposefully hurtful, and when I gave her the benefit of the doubt, I could see the situation through the lens of love and friendship instead of offense and hurt.

Satan wants to destroy our closest relationships: our marriages, our friendships, our family relationships. He wants us pitted against one another so that he can pick us off, one by one, destroying us with lies underpinning layers of hurt and offense. If we walk through life angry and hurt, we’ll not reach the fullness of the plans God has for us. And that’s his goal: if he cannot convince us to deny the existence of God, he tries to render us useless and impotent, unable to be used by God to further his Kingdom purposes. Carrying hurt and offense and unforgiveness will tie us up in knots, keeping us from God’s best for ourselves and those around us.

One of the best ways to protect our relationships from Satan’s wily attacks is to practice assuming the best of those we love—always working from the assumption that they love us, that they have our best interests at heart, that they are unintentional when they hurt us. Don’t let Satan tear apart your relationships; choose to strengthen them with a loving response.

— Julie

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

When you are feeling irritated or angry, hurt or offended by a loved one, pause to reconsider the situation, attributing good intentions to the other party. Then pray over whether and how to speak with them about it.