Friday, December 05, 2008

The Hater
by Pastor Penny Hipp

Pastor Penny Hipp, Co-Pastor of Cross River Church in Mobile, AL wrote this awesome piece... I just had to post it and give her a shout out!!! She and her husband Joey co-pastor Cross River together. Craig and I had the opportunity to meet Pastor Joey here in Chicago when he spoke at a local church. We thoroughly enjoyed and received from his ministry. I also just found out that Pastor Penny is Facebook friends with one of my sistas, Sandy Phinazee! Sandy is a precious and powerful woman of God too! Anyway, I know you will enjoy this blog piece as much as I do! Be encouraged!



The Hater

A hater is someone who is jealous and envious and spends all their time trying to make you look small so they can look tall. They are very negative people to say the least. Nothing is ever good enough! Do you know anybody like that?

When you are successful, you will always attract some haters. I want friends who will be with me when I am successful and on the mountain top. Sure, it’s good to have them when things aren’t so good too!


That's why you have to be careful with whom you share your blessings and your dreams, because some folk just can't handle seeing you blessed!


It's dangerous to be like somebody else. If God wanted you to be like somebody else, He would have given you what He gave them! Right?


You never know what people have gone through to get what they have. The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don't know my story.


If the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, you can rest assured that the water bill is higher there too!


We've all got some haters among us!


Some people envy you because you:
a) Have a relationship with God
b) Light up a room when you walk in
c) Have a great personality
d) Are magnetic
e) Are financially blessed
f) Have been promoted by God


Haters can't stand to see you happy. Haters will never want to see you succeed. Most of our haters are people who are supposed to be on our side.


How do you handle your undercover haters?


You can handle these haters by:


1. Knowing who you are & who your true friends are (VERY IMPORTANT!!)


2. Having a purpose to your life. Purpose does not mean having a job. You can have a job and still be unfulfilled. A purpose is having a clear sense of what God has called you to be. Your purpose is not defined by what others think about you.


3. By remembering that what you have is by divine prerogative and not human manipulation.


Fulfill your dreams! You only have one life to live...when it’s your time to leave this earth, you want to be able to say, “I've lived my life and fulfilled ‘my’ dreams, now I'm ready to go HOME!”


When God gives you favor, you can tell your haters, “Don't look at me...Look at Who is in charge of me...”






4 comments:

Sherri Walker-McCann said...

I can see what the article is saying, but, in general I really feel that most people are not like that. I think that there are only a few people in the world that are so vindictive and jealous. I can not imagine any of my friends being jealous over something good going on in my life...and I would never feel that way about them either. I think that anyone who is blessed and yet remains humble, would have very few "haters".....if they DO, then it is most likely people who are not dircetly invloved in their lives-and are certainly not their "friends".....so, IMHO-it would not matter what they think anyway.

Dr. Deanna DossShrodes said...

Love it!

Especially that line, "Don't look at me...look at who is in charge of me..."

So true.

Don't be upset with me...take it up with God -- He's the one who has blessed and highly favored me!

Thanks for sharing this, Tara.

Love you much,
Deanna

Tara Sloan said...

Sherri,

I truly believe there are more cheerleaders than "haters" but unfortunately, especially of late, many people I know have been going through this. It is happening in the church, in the workplace, and even in some families. And you hit the nail on the head, your TRUE "friends will never be jealous of where you are going and what is happening in your life..." I hear people knocking their pastors over what they drive, over their confidence, and I have seen people in the workplace attempt to sabotage people who receive recognition and rewards. Many times, the person being hated on retreats which is not at all what they should do. That is exactly what Pastor Penny is saying... don't "hate the player... take it up with God!"

Love ya girl!

Dr. Deanna DossShrodes said...

When Penny speaks of haters, she is not referring to friends.

True friends are not in abundance in most people's lives. True friends are rare finds...precious gems. The world is full of those who would criticize. I would respectfully disagree that there are few haters. Anyone who has ever done anything major will have a lot of detractors. Look at people like Joel Osteen (who HAS to be the most "positive" person on earth!) or Rick Warren. These people are mercilessly criticized by "haters". Just google their names and you will see whole blogs dedicated to nothing but tearing down these people of God. Why? Jealousy. Everyone is not happy about their success. These are examples of just two very successful people who are very blessed, and very humble. Yet they have many haters.

Jesus had many haters! (Some of them even rose up and crucified him and keep in mind these were the "religious" people of the day.) Nobody was more humble than our Savior.

The key is to stay close to Jesus, and keep His words and the words of our true covenant friends in our ears and block out the words of the haters.