Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Proverbs 24:17-22
Prov 24:17-22
17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, 18 lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. 19 Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, 20 for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out. 21 My son, fear the Lord and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise, 22 for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?
Rom 12:17-21
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.
The young man David was anointed by the prophet of God to be the next King over Israel. Saul was reigning and soon found out that David was favored by God and that his days were numbered. In his jealousy, he began to try to get rid of David. He even issued an APB for him with orders to kill him on sight. During this time, David had opportunities to kill Saul but refused because he was “the anointed of God”. He said when the time came, God would take care of it.
Too often we get all riled up and we want to take matters into our own hands and “get even” with someone. There are several problems with this. One, it goes against the teaching of Jesus when he said for us to love our enemies and pray for them and also, when he said when someone slaps us, we are to turn the other cheek. A practical problem with this is that when we retaliate for a wrong done, the one who did it will retaliate to the retaliation and so we respond in kind, and it just continues to escalate. We need to learn to love and to just ignore what has happened to us, and then learn to forgive and let God handle it.
O Lord God, help me to not be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good by treating others the way I want to be treated, not how they have treated me. Lord, this is hard to do, so give me a heart of love like you love me. Give me faith like David to trust you to take care of things. Give me strength to keep my mouth shut and to do nothing when the urge is to say things I should not say or do things I should not do. Forgive me when I fail. Help me to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I pray in Jesus’ name.
Robert
