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Proverbs 20:22 NIV

By October 20, 2023No Comments

“Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the Lord, and he will avenge you.”

Ever been wronged? Yeah, me too. I don’t know about you but my first reaction, after catching my breath and clearing my vision a bit, has been to ponder how to get back at them and teach them a lesson. That’s normal right? I mean teaching them a lesson seems like I’m doing them a service. Nope. As my wife use to say, “That is not ok!”. In this verse Solomon basically tells us the same thing yet with an even better explanation than just ‘don’t do it’. He also lets us know that we are free from the curse of pursuing vengeance to instead pursue the healing gift of forgiveness. It is an impossible thing to pursue both forgiveness and vengeance at the same time. We are pursuing one or the other. God blesses us by letting us know that vengeance, whatever it looks like, is solely His responsibility. This leaves us free to allow His Spirit to set us away from the death grip of the ugly dark thing called vengeance. It may sound a little naive but the ability to walk away from mistreatment and leave a response solely in God’s hands is a discipline that has to be developed. Life, more exactly the broken people in life, normally provide ample opportunity to practice this discipline. Let’s focus on living in love and let God focus on the “pay back”. Today choose forgiveness. #BeTheEdge

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Jesus

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