“But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one also [simply ignore insignificant insults or losses and do not bother to retaliate—maintain your dignity]. Whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.” Amp. Bible
Now, talk about something hard to do! “Tit for tat, butter for fat, you killed my dog, I’ll kill your cat!” This is what most of us want to do when someone does wrong to us. At least, that’s my first thought. However, God always reminds me of His Word!!! LOVE! BLESS! PRAY! AND DO GOOD! Really??? Yes, really!
I’ve been concentrating on the line…”Do good to those who do evil to you.” “But, Lord, I don’t want to do good to them. I really want them to pay. I want my revenge. I want people to know what they did to hurt me.” Then I think about this verse in Proverbs, and it changes my heart; “Do not rejoice and gloat when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad [in self-righteousness] when he stumbles, Or the LORD will see your gloating and be displeased, And turn His anger away from your enemy. “ Pro. 24:17&18. “I don’t want You to turn Your anger away from my enemy! You said You hate cheating in the marketplace and rigged scales are an abomination (Pro. 20), so I feel like I’m justified in my revenge.” But You said, “Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.” Romans 12:19 Msg. “Well, I’m getting impatient, Lord!” I want God to take care of this injustice right now. But God’s timing is not ours. He’s an on-time God and there’s a time and season for everything, even for revenge. So, we can trust that He will do what is best for everyone…even our so-called enemies.
So, how do we do good to our enemies? We love them! We bless them! We pray for them! I go from praying like King David did in Psalms 109….destroy my enemies, send them into bank foreclosure, let their days be few, don’t let anyone show mercy to them. Then, I go to Psalms 139…”Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—“. Of course, when I’m thinking of getting even or getting revenge, there’s evil in my heart. I must ask Holy Spirit to cleanse my heart. Take all this wrong thinking from my heart and mind. Teach me what it is to truly love, pray, do good and bless my enemies.
This is really a conversation with the Lord. He knows my thoughts even before I think them (Romans 15:8), so I’m not telling Him anything He doesn’t already know. DAH! Sometimes it’s good to vent! But, I have to make sure my heart gets right and not stay in that ‘venting’ mode. After all, God is aware of everything! He’s never surprised by what we do or say, or how we act.
Dear Friend, our attitudes are our choice. No one can make us hate, love, bless, do good, be angry or unforgiving. These are choices we make every day. No matter what someone does to us, what someone says about us…we can make a choice to rejoice. Remember Matthew 7:12; The Golden Rule; “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.” MSG
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