Tag: Revenge

Our Judge – God – He’s Always Fair

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

DATE WRITTEN: Saturday, 2020-10-31
WRITTEN AT: Vicksburg, MS

BIBLE REFERENCE: 1 Peter 2:21-23
TRANSLATION: Living Bible (TLB)

BIBLE TEXT: 21 ….. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in His steps: 22 He never sinned, never told a lie, 23 never answered back when insulted; when He suffered He did not threaten to get even; He left His case in the hands of God who always judges fairly. 

OBSERVATION: We hate it when someone accuses us when we did something illegal or hateful, but we are really hurt when they accuse us and we are innocent. Jesus faced many accusations, but He simply surrendered the situation to His Father. As His followers, Christians are probably doing the same that Jesus did, correct? Well, let’s look closer at this and see how sincere we are in following the ways of Jesus. We know and honor the same fair Judge as He did, but can we let go and let God?

APPLICATION: It happens at home, at work, at church and almost anywhere that we become involved, people falsely accuse us for one reason or the other. What are the causes? Jealousy and envy might be the two major causes, but the excuses are normally: favoritism; kissing up to the boss; given more education opportunities; etc. These all sound so familiar, and often used and misused by those who set out to attack us. Friends, at one time or another in our lifetimes, we could probably have been charged as ’guilty’ for retaliation, due to one or more of the above. Anger results as we rehearse in our minds what the person may have been thinking, planning or about to do. Revenge is something that we start to plan, for we then want the other person to hurt more than we do. But for the child of God, what aught we to do? Just keep everything bottled up inside? I don’t believe that’s what we are being taught in the Scriptures. Notice that we are taught about the character of Jesus, before being told how He handled unfair attacks against Him. So let me suggest that you pinpoint a scenario today where you would normally not handle attacks very good. Perhaps at work; at church; at a social club or even at home. Would the people in those places be able to accuse you of lying; lashing back at them verbally or perhaps threatening to get even with them? If so, do you suppose that they would trust you to judge them fairly and pass an honest verdict on their behavior? Friends, I believe that Peter wanted us to understand that if we truly model the life of Jesus, then we are more apt to follow His practices of leaving any judgment up to God on those that we feel may have persecuted or abused us. I believe that it is extremely challenging for us to rid ourselves of revenge. But what I do know is that there is One who can handle that for us. Oh that we would surrender our will to Jesus each and every day so that more of Him will come forth in our lives, for He judges fairly and He will guide us into His way of righteousness. Perhaps we should practice praying for those who persecute us, instead of fighting back or seeking revenge. The love of God will cause us to seek the very best for our opposers rather than following the world’s practices.

PRAYER: Precious Lord, thank You for showing us the way to righteousness. Thank You for showing us the source of power that will help us to live like You exampled before us. It seems so easy for us to draw conclusions about the thoughts and intentions of those that touch our lives. Please humble us to allow Your guidance and Your powerful touch to overcome and avoid evil, and to not be an instigator or agitator that may cause evil. Lord, may Your perfect will be done in and through us today and every day. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog at https://NuggetsFromGodsWord.org that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading or listening to this devotional, please go to the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and see all of my posts, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

Dealing With Sin

On By Ed AlgreenIn Envy, Forgiveness, Jealousy, SinLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The New Living Translation – Genesis 27:26-28): 26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime. 27 Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. 28 So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.

THOUGHTS: Sometimes the best way to understand how to properly deal with an issue is to look at situations where a similar instance was not handled properly, or as in the case today, where the corrective actions led to even more sin. The first sin that I see evident in the case of Joseph’s brothers is jealousy. They were at a stage of hatred for Joseph, because of the love shown towards him by their father. Had they taken time to deal with that sin, I believe the chances of the additional sinful actions may not have transpired. However, because they didn’t take care of the jealousy problem the following additional sin occurred:

  • They would not talk to their brother – an obvious sign of jealousy and hatred;
  • They jumped to conclusions about his dreams that only developed more envy and hatred;
  • They opted to kill their brother when he was sent to the field by his dad, to check on them;
  • They chose to override the last sin by what they thought may have been a lesser sin, they chose to desert Joseph in a pit in the wilderness so he could, supposedly, die naturally;
  • Because the last thought would still involve them placing hands on Joseph and deliberately throwing him into the pit, they opted instead to sell him to traders. Human Trafficking today is a horrific crime getting more attend than terrorism. It was no better back when Joseph was sold, as there were no assurances as to what would happen to him after being under the control of his new masters.

Friends, are we any different today? God’s Word teaches us to bring our burdens and our concerns to Him. It also teaches that we are to love others as we love ourselves and that vengeance is mine (the Lord’s), so why would we take it as our job to bring vengeance on that friend who is not acting like we think they should. Our responsibility is to love them with the love of God and earnestly pray for their best interest and their personal relationship with God. As Christians, we are to imitate Christ. So how did He act when we sinned? He loved us enough that He willingly went to the cross of Calvary to open the gates of heaven for us. Because of His sacrifice for us – while we were still steeped in sin, we now have access to the forgiveness of our sin and a straight path to glory to be with Jesus and His/our Father.

PRAYER: Thank You for giving us options dear God. Thank You also for giving us wisdom, and access to You, so that we would make the best choices in the options presented to us each day. It is unfortunate that our natural desire tends to automatically lead us to revenge, or deeper and/or additional sin. Please provoke us to once again praise You today for being our guide and our deliverer from the evil one, and instead lead us in the paths of righteousness, when we place our faith and trust in You. Lord, we read about the actions that Joseph’s brothers took, and we quiver over the fact that they were so cruel. However, I believe that You must also look at us, your proclaimed children who have surrendered our lives to You, yet we often act in much the same way towards our Brothers and our Sisters. Please forgive us oh Lord, and renew within us a right spirit – one that aligns with Your Word, and Your life as demonstrated while here on earth. I believe that Christians living any other way than matching Your expectations are useless to Your kingdom. May we be true to You in every way and live lives pleasing to You in every way, is my humble prayer that I ask in the name of Jesus, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or read through Biblical truths on How To Know Jesus, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!