How do you feel when someone wrongs you? Do you want to take matters into your own hands? Do you look for ways to repay them with the same type of wrong? Or worse? Do you carry out your desires for revenge?
Every one of us has been wronged in one fashion or another. Some worse than others. But no wrong ever feels good at the time it happens or while you are going through it. It is the nature of our fallen world to want revenge.
Yet we are told it is not for us to take revenge. We are to leave it to God to carry out His justice. That can be very hard to do. Especially when we have the opportunity for revenge right in front of us. All we have to do is take one more step to execute it.
Why would God not want us to take revenge? First, it taints us. Our own psyche takes a hit. We feel guilty later on. Second, it is outside of Gods will for us. He desires we emulate His Son. He wants us to follow Jesus’ example.
Remember, Jesus was slapped, spit on, flogged, and crucified. He did not take revenge. It was within His power to do so. He had the entire host of heaven at his disposal. He could have destroyed the entire world with a single command. Yet He went to the cross for us, all future people, and all past people.
Additionally, God may see an opportunity for us to minister to the person who wronged us, bringing them into the kingdom of God. If we take revenge on that person, the opportunity will never materialize. We will have thwarted God’s plan for us to rejoice with the person as they accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. In all circumstances, when we take revenge rather than allowing God to avenge us, we lose.
I pray we all decide to allow God to do the avenging. I pray we reject taking revenge on our own. I pray each one of us seeks to follow Jesus’ example. Do not take revenge. Leave it to God to avenge. Follow God’s guidance and plan for your life. Follow Jesus’ example.
Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
Marty Pressey 