Hit by Friendly Fire
Michael A Milton
Evangelical Press
96 pages, £4.99
ISBN: 978-0-85234-776-8
Star Rating: 4
This little book is sub-titled ‘What to do when fellow believers hurt you’ and is based on a single sermon preached by the author. It comprises 7 very short chapters. The first 3 set the scene, highlighting a couple of Biblical examples and examples from the writer’s own experience. The danger of falling into a ‘victim’ mentality when others have hurt us is made clear. This would threaten to paralyse spiritual growth and allow bitterness to take root. The last 4 chapters then give the remedy, and the chapter titles summarise well the thrust of the message: ‘Take up your cross’ (by suffering we are identifying with the Lord Jesus Christ); ‘Take off your crown’ (acknowledge that God is sovereign, not you); ‘Go to your Gethsemane’ (acknowledge that God’s will for you is good); and ‘Don’t give up on the church’ (‘it is as a family of believers that we learn to live and always cling to the foot of the cross of Christ’). I found the message very helpful, bringing me to repent anew of the hurt that my harsh words have caused to others in the past, while reflecting on whether I have fully learned the lessons the Lord intended me to learn from the wounds that I have received from others. Each chapter ends with a suggested prayer, which those who like written prayers may find helpful.
There are a few minor blemishes: in my view the writer misapplies Zechariah 13.6; and he appears to imply that Paul’s imprisonment itself was the result of betrayal from fellow Christians. But these are minor niggles: if you have ever been hurt by another Christian – and if you haven’t been, you will be! – this is a valuable book. It will point you away from yourself to the one who loved you and gave Himself for you, and it will help you to embrace even such painful experiences as God’s way of moulding us into the likeness of His Son.
David Cooke,
Banbury
