Oct 20 - Today from Proverbs 20 we look at verse 22
"Do not say, I'll pay you back for this wrong!' Wait for the Lord and He will deliver you."
And from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:43-45a, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven."
And from Paul' epistle to the Romans, chapter 12:17-19a, "Do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath."
Did you ever set up a row of dominoes in such a way that when you push the first one down, a chain reaction occurs and they all go down? That serves as an excellent illustration of how pride and sin work in this fallen world system. Ephesians 6:11 & 12 exhorts us to put on the full armor of God so that we might stand against the devil's schemes. Our struggle is not against people, but against the spiritual forces of darkness. Revenge is one of the devil's schemes. He influences and exploits evil men in attempts to set a chain reaction that will topple as many others as possible. As long as men act in pride, the row continues to go down. It is only when one acts in love that the chain is stopped. Satan is the epitome of pride. Love is as foreign to him as light is to darkness. When he plots his evil schemes, he never calculates the element of love. When God's people act in love instead of pride, it undoes his scheme, and God gets the glory. Will the prideful pawns of the devil 'get away' with their evil acts? That is up to the Supreme Judge. From the truths we read in the three passages above, we can be assured that our Father will make sure justice is served - His way. The important thing is that we do not play into the schemes of the enemy by taking justice into our own hands. When we do, the row just keeps falling - and we will never know how far it will go.
A 'pound of flesh' may seem very satisfying for the moment, but you can be sure it appeals only to wounded pride. And, you can be sure that there will continue a reactionary chain of events in the spirit realm which will trigger more evil. Love, mercy and kindness disarm the schemes of the devil, and gives entrance to the rule of the kingdom of Christ. If there is to be judgment and wrath, we are to leave room for God's wrath, it's not ours to personally handle. If we try, we'll just push the next domino.
Since Nov 08
About Me
- Ken
- While mentor-ing a couple of young men late in the year 2001 , I told them that if they agreed to read a chapter of Proverbs each week-day as a part of their devotions, I would choose one verse from the chapter and share a meditation by email. They agreed. I continued to write the meditations at my desk in my home for the next two and a half years. They began to forward them to their friends and I received requests from those friends to be placed on the email list. My personal email bundle was to about eighty people. Many of those people forwarded them to friends all over the country – and some over the world. Only the Lord knows how extensive the writings traveled. I am not a professional writer, and each meditation was spun off in a relatively short period of time during my own personal devotions in the morning. In April of 2004 I assembled 366 of the meditations into a calendar year. As I now bring up the Proverb of the Day to send on to my friends, I am surprised at how fresh each of them is to my own heart – and often how they speak to me in a completely different way than when I first wrote them. . . . . Ken Sweers
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