2009 – Day 122.May 03 – Revenge or Forgiveness

2009 – Day 122.May 03 – Revenge or Forgiveness

Blogger’s Note: Well, I’m excited! A God-thing has just happened for me. You may have read and noted my “Blogger’s Note” from this morning’s devotional entry. I had forgotten to bring my Chuck Swindoll book, Great Days with the Great Lives. So, I had decided to go to the online devotional from The Daily Bread while we were in East TN on vacation for my morning quiet times. Well, I did have a very poignant time with God earlier this morning using The Daily Bread; and after Elly and I had had our quiet times with God in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. Well, Elly noted that I was a bit bummed out, not having my devotional book; and said that she thought she had seen a bookstore as we turned last night to come to our condo. So, we went out to see if we could find that store. >>> Finding the store, we found out it was open; and we went in to find the “Religion” section. And low and behold, they had ONLY ONE COPY of “my” devotional book. And so, having purchased that book, I get to do two devotionals for this day, which actually seems very appropriate since we were missing our corporate worship time in church . >>> Therefore, below you’ll find my extended time to go deep into God’s word and have more personal worship time. And now, as I sit here listening to a wonderful Moody FM station, playing worship music here for this area, I’m back with you and Chuck Swindoll to get closer to our God.

Passage of the Day: 1st Samuel 8: 24: 8 - 22 … Linked to 1st Samuel 24 for your study …

My Journal for Today: If you read my devotional yesterday, you’ll note that David had a clear conscience in his retreat from Saul’s pursuit, turning over any vengeance to God, and “turning his cheek” to the king who was pursuing him in anger and jealousy. And we saw how this Messiah-like attitude allowed David to rise above his own temptation to be bitter toward Saul.

Today, emphasizing and studying from much the same text in 1st Samuel 24, Swindoll points out that there are three points we need to remember if we are tempted toward anger, bitterness, and/or revenge when someone has wronged us or is trying to make our life miserable. These three points are …

1. First, “… since man is depraved, expect to be mistreated.” Do we really think that we’re going to live our lives out and have all those who are in our circle of influence to be act like Christ toward us, always treating us as we would treat them? Since that simply “ain’t gonna to happen,” we need to be ready if someone acts out their anger or jealousy toward us.

2. Second, Swindoll points out, “… since mistreatment is inevitable, anticipate feelings of revenge.” God’s truth (from Jeremiah 17: 9) says that our hearts are wicked and deceitful beyond measure. So, we’ve got to know that our human reaction to mistreatment will be feelings of revenge; and that’s the lie Satan would try to get us to believe and follow. And since we know this will be our nature, we must be ready to surrender to God and be super-natural in our response.

3. Finally, my devotional author says, “ … since the desire for revenge is predictable, [we must] refuge to fight in the flesh.” That was what we learn from David’s example from today’s text. He simply refused to relent to his own flesh and the desire to get back at Saul. And that must be our “M.O.” as well.

We’ve simply must be ready (note I didn’t say “easily”) to rise above the flesh when (not “IF”) anyone in our life comes after us in some way, predictably causing us to desire revenge. We must do what Paul warned us to do … and that is to resist the Devil so that he will flee from us. So, when we’re attacked, we’ve first got to ready to go into SURRENDER MODE rather than react by going into attack mode. Because as long as we’re surrendered to God’s Spirit, allowing His grace to cover us, we’ll be able to treat others exactly like Jesus commanded us … just like we would desire that they treat us.

My Prayer for Today: Holy God, help me to live by the Golden Rule rather than the rule of the flesh. Amen