TIMELESS WORD FOR LIFE

9. IS IT OK TO REVENGE?
Proverbs 24:17-20
“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when
he stumbles; or the LORD
will see it and be displeased, and turn His anger away from him. Do not fret,
because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked; for there will be no future for
the evil man; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.”

Proverbs 25:21–22
“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him
water to drink; For you will
heap burning coals (black rock symbolize punishment) on his head, and the Lord
will reward you.”

WARM UP
Make a list of some people who have harmed you in some way and whom, in
the quietness of your heart, you wish would suffer misfortune as payment for
their sins against you. Keep this list private. (Confess to God and ask for
forgiveness).

WORD
Sir Francis Bacon had the right idea when he wrote, “Revenge is a kind of wild
justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought to law to weed it
out… Certainly, in taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in
passing over it, he is superior, for it is a prince’s part to pardon.” If you have
spent much time around someone who is eaten up with the desire for revenge,
someone nursing an attitude of resentment, you know how tragic a thing it is.
These people are walking containers of poison.
That’s because resentment never resolves itself; resentment corrodes anything
it touches, breaks containment, and eventually kills its host. And to make things
worse, innocent bystanders become victims of collateral damage when the
pressure builds beyond control and suddenly explodes. (John 10:10 “satan came
to steal, kill and destroy but God came to give life and to have it more
abundantly”).

(HOW DOES GOD WANTS US TO RESPOND WHEN WRONGED BY SOMEONE?)

1. LEAVE JUSTICE TO GOD.
God calls us to entrust Him with all matters requiring justice and to surrender
our right to obtain it ourselves.
Romans 12:19
19 
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but  leave room for the wrath of God,
for it is written: “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I  WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.

God gives us His solemn assurance that He will handle justice on our behalf and
fulfill His role as Judge with absolute integrity. This promise frees us to leave
past hurts in the past and to focus on making good decisions for the sake of
creating a good future.
2. LEAVE MERCY TO GOD.
Just like justice, we just leave giving mercy to God. Forgiveness is not forgetting.
People who try to forget find that they cannot. God says He will “remember no
more” our sins (Hebrews 10:17), but God, being omniscient, cannot forget.
“Remember no more” means that God will never use the past against us (Psalm
103:12). Forgetting may be a result of forgiveness, but it is never the means of
forgiveness. When we bring up the past against others, we haven’t forgiven
them. Forgiveness is a choice, a crisis of the will. Since God requires us to
forgive, it is something we can do. (He would
never require us to do something we cannot do.) Forgiveness is agreeing to live
with the consequences of another person’s sin. Forgiveness is costly; we pay the
price of the evil we forgive.
Yet you’re going to live with those consequences whether you want to or not;
your only choice is whether you will do so in the bitterness of unforgiveness or
the freedom of forgiveness.
(Forgiveness Is A Condition For Our Own Freedom, Neil Anderson)
3. SHOW KINDNESS TO YOUR ENEMY.
Grace is simply kindness extended to another person regardless of merit—or
the lack of it. Grace is showing kindness without first considering whether that
person deserves it. (Grace is giving something although the person is not
deserving).
4. EMBRACE GRACE.
The Aostle Paul’s statement—“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil
with good” (Romans
12:21). God will overcome the world’s evil with His good. In following the
command of Christ to
“bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:14; Matthew 5:44) and by returning good
for evil, we become
like God, as we become active participants in His work. And if, however, we
refuse to join God in His work, if we reject His call to extend grace to our
enemies as He does, the daily grind of revenge will
continue to siphon our peace, drain our joy, and undermine our love until we
do.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Write a letter to a person that you need to forgive. If the person is still alive, you
can send the letter to the person. If the person is no longer on this earth, then
bring the letter to the graveyard. (Anything you can do as a gesture of
forgiveness.
(forgive even the dead ones who caused hurt on you).