Drop ItSample

Haters are people who are against you. They discourage your dreams, disrupt your progress, and detour you from God's best. They also like to throw shade. According to the handy dandy Urban Dictionary, “throwing shade” is defined as acting in a casual or disrespectful manner towards someone.

Don’t view shade as a negative; sometimes you have to wear it as a badge of honor. People only throw shade on things that are hot. You see, the hotter, better, faster, and greater you become, the more shade is gonna get thrown.

God teaches us that the real Hater is Satan. He uses other people to discourage, disrupt, and detour you. Here's a secret to the enemy: He leaves you alone in proportion to how you are doing. The worse we are, the more he ignores us. He has to turn his attention to those who are succeeding and doing well. The better you are doing, the harsher the enemy's tactics will become. Now our guy Bartimaeus isn't really achieving much, so it doesn't seem like the devil is really in his business. But the crowd around him are the ones throwing shade.

Satan doesn't want people to see Jesus for who he really is. As Bartimaeus began to cry out for help, “Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’” When the haters started throwing shade, Bartimaeus began to yell and turn up the heat. He wasn't worried about what the crowd thought, because he had enough faith to see his healing on the other side.

If you want to see and live what God has for you, sometimes you have to turn your back to the crowd. If you are always living your life through the thoughts and expectations of others, you will constantly find yourself in situations where you have no control over the win. The Lord wants you to stand up and shout in the midst of your haters, but you've got to turn your back to them, quit listening, and not get discouraged, disrupted or detoured by the crowd. The crowd will never go away—the enemy will always throw shade your way—but that's a game you cannot play. You have to ignore it, be the conductor and play your music.