Overcoming Racial Prejudice

Ying (not her real name) was a cell leader in our church. She came to us distraught, relating the reason for her anguish. Her daughter announced she was going to marry a Eurasian man. She fumed, “I hate Eurasians. Why must she choose him of all people?”

We were surprised. Ying was a mature church leader in our Women’s Fellowship, and she was always caring and loving to everyone. We prayed to ask God to find out what the problem was. Then her story came flooding out.

Childhood Trauma

When Ying was a little girl growing up in a poor family, she had no money to buy exercise books. Thinking up a bright idea, she gathered the other students’ old exercise books and tore out the unused pages to sew together. Her teacher, instead of praising her ingenuity, held up her book in front of the whole class and exclaimed, “What kind of book is this?” to the ridiculing laughter of the other children. Flinging her book to the floor, the pages flying all over, Ying went down on all fours to retrieve them, wishing the ground would open to swallow her. She could never forget this humiliating event. The teacher was a Eurasian.

Adding Fuel

After marriage, she and her husband opened a restaurant. Serving customers, she found that some Eurasian customers seemed to be more demanding and ruder than the others. So, her racial prejudice deepened.

Now her daughter was going to marry a Eurasian! How could she accept a Eurasian into the family? Hearing about all this, we realized it would take a supernatural work of God to remove years of accumulated hurts and hatred. 

God’s Treatment

After listening to Ying’s sad story, we prayed for direction from God on how to help her.

First, we felt Ying’s deep emotional wound needed healing. We explained to her that she had been deeply hurt and that this resulted in her severe hatred. Then we explain that God wanted to heal her of that wound by releasing forgiveness to those who hurt her. This is Jesus’s solution to remove anger and hatred.  

Ying listened, but we could see that she was puzzled, “But I did nothing wrong. She hurt me. She has never said sorry. How can I forgive her!”. We explained forgiveness does not depend on the other person or what she does or does not do. Forgiveness is setting herself free. Otherwise, her hatred will keep on hurting her. Slowly she began to nod her head.

We led her to pray, “Lord Jesus, in obedience to your teaching, I forgive my teacher Miss XXX for her cruelty. In Jesus’ Name”. And we said “Amen” with her. We then told her she needed to ask God to forgive her for her hatred, anger, prejudice, etc. She was genuinely repentant in her confession of her sins. 

We declared 1 John 1:9 over her life; “If you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.” We assured her of God’s forgiveness on account of her obedience to confess and forgive.  

Next, we took the powerful weapon of Jesus’ Name to cut off the painful memories of the event, naming the places, surroundings, sounds, sights, smells, as well as the facial expression, the voice of the offending teacher, the laughter of her classmates, her feelings of humiliation, shame, embarrassment, hurt, etc. With this garbage removed, we commanded the evil spirits of unforgiveness, hateful thoughts, self-pity, anger, etc., which fed on this garbage to leave her in the Name of Jesus.

Finally, we thanked God that healing has already begun, and we invited the Holy Spirit to fill her with peace, joy, love, etc., and to make the wounds heal completely. Her healing was indeed complete – her past was wiped clean, she was set free, and she was able to joyfully welcome her Eurasian son-in-law into the family.