Revenge

    "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."   ~Romans 12:17-21

    God calls us to be calm and have it altogether when things go wrong. When revenge gets a hold of us it doesn't let go. The whole purpose of revenge is to be consumed with thoughts of getting back at someone because they did us wrong. No matter how small the hurt is it will consume us. If you really think about it why does being hurt bother us so much? I mean yeah, nobody likes heartbreak or disappointment but shouldn't we just brush it off? The only problem is...we care too much. Our conscience tells us that it needs to be kept straight even if the kinks are in the past. We always want to be treated right by others which we should be. But it becomes a problem when it rules our lives.

    We place revenge on others because we simply aren't happy. We take this period of being ticked at the person who hurt us in hopes of it bothering them. If the people that hurt us also hurt and are worried because of what they did to us, then nobody is happy. What is the point of nobody being happy? Really? There is no point. 

    Think back to a time when revenge took hold of your mind. I have let revenge eat me alive so many times I can't recall one specific incident. I know I have definitely done it to my parents when I argue with them and give them the silent treatment in hopes of them coming to me to reconcile. Not in every circumstance are we right as the hurt ones. But we are wrong when revenge takes us hostage. Really think of what this horrible mind set does to us ultimately.  This is not something God likes to see take sail in our heart so therefore it is the devils. Everything about sin screams revenge and Satan loves that. See revenge does no good for our hearts and our morals. It teaches us that hating others and constantly asking for more is a good thing. The filter that normally holds back all hateful thoughts doesn't exist in revenge. 

    We can't fully live our lives if revenge is in it because we will always strive to make that go away. We need to just fully cut off all feelings of revenge as soon as we encounter them because they only grow. It is like a disease that will continue to grow with the hopes of overtaking us and it becomes impossible to get rid of it. Know you might be thinking to yourself "well I don't have any revenge, so how does this pertain to me." Everyone has past hurts and will have future ones and there are several times where we think that we have let go of our revenge when we really haven't. Search your heart this week and find out if revenge is taking you captive if so free yourself of it so you can start living.

Word of the Day: "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."

                                      ~James 3:17-18