Thoughts

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

THOUGHTS

Prov 24:28-29

28 Do not testify against your neighbor without cause, or use your lips to deceive. 29 Do not say, "I'll do to him as he has done to me; I'll pay that man back for what he did."

NIV

Seems pretty straight forward as God has said that revenge belongs to him.

Rom 12:18-21

 19 Do not take revenge , my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."   21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

NIV

So then why would we ever want to get even with someone who does a wrong to us? There is just no reason whatsoever, in fact we should be doing them good. If we consider just for a moment what it means in their lives to be objects of God’s wrath, they are going to experience the most horrendous ordeal any person could ever go through. They are going to find out all the mocking, all the slander, all the fun making at us who believe, was totally in error. They are going to find that all their talk about not believing that stuff about God was wrong and they are in fact going to suffer damnation. Although they refused all their lives to acknowledge God, they are going to take a knee before him. Every knee will bow.

Isa 45:23-25

23 By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked:  Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. 24 They will say of me, 'In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.'" All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. 25 But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult.

NIV

Every person who has, is and will ever live will kneel before God. It matters not, believer and non-believer alike will find out God is real, and he is the one true God. We who believe will enter into his rest, but those who refused to believe will be put to shame, they will ultimately be cast into the lake of burning sulfur. So rather than repaying them for anything they happen to do against us, we should be having pity on them, showing them mercy, giving them an opportunity to repent of their sin and come to the saving knowledge of Jesus. These are our instructions we find in the letter to the Romans. If they are hungry, feed them, if they are thirsty, give them something to drink.

Matt 5:6

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

NIV

Is this not what we should feed them with, or quench their thirst with, the righteousness of Christ? The greatest expression of compassion and mercy is to make every effort to help them escape that lake of burning sulfur. We should be feeding them the truth of God, we should be giving them living water that spring up from us.

John 7:37-39

37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."  39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

NIV

It is not so much what we say, although our words mean much, but rather our thoughts are indeed what is in our heart. So let us not even think of revenge, but rather think compassionately. For so as we think, so are we.