Paint The Target

Theme: Worship, Serving, Freedom, Judgement

Scripture: Romans 12:19 -21 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: " It is mine to avenge; I will repay." says the Lord. On the contrary: " if you enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Observation: We are encouraged when we are hurt or mistreated to quickly forgive and hand things over to God trusting that he will deal with the situation in a just manner. God is going to be able to deal with the the person who hurt you a lot more severely than you can. However, God knows this is going to be hard for us to let go of so he gives us some action to launch our heart into freedom while providing the way for Him to deal with the offender. He says feed them, give them a drink...God is saying do an act of kindness towards them, and if it comes from the right heart it will free you and also make room for me to avenge you! In this way we won't be overcome by evil, but we will overcome evil with good!

Application: If there is anyone that I am upset or hurt about, anyone that I have not forgiven for offenses in the past then right now I will make the decision of my will to apply this scripture;

I will not take revenge - but I will trust God to avenge me & repay,

I will take a deliberate course of action to do an act of kindness towards this person by meeting a heartfelt need,

I will trust my God that this will free me & also get me out of the way so that God may deal with the person as he sees fit.

To help us understand this it is like the launching of a cruise missile - it is programmed to hit a specific target, however if you happen to be standing close by or you are attached to the target then you die too! God can't deal with those who hurt us even if he wants to if we haven't forgiven because to take them out is take us out at the same time! The act of heartfelt kindness paints the target so that God can deploy action!

We must learn to let things go and not just trust God but actually partner with Him to paint the target with Love...

Prayer: Father help me to always keep my heart pure and calm safely secure in your arms of love. Help me to always forgive and trust you to deal with those that hurt me, and then give me the courage to make the way clear for you to act by responding with genuine acts of kindness to meet heartfelt need. May my life overcome evil with good!

Created 12 months ago