Is Vengeance Our Job, Or God's?

I told a couple of friends one day that I would never physically fight another woman for my man.  They both said “I would”.  Now, I’m not saying they are wrong and I’m right, but when it comes to forms of vengeance, I’m a firm believer that “Vengeance is the Lord’s”.  Do I like it?  Not all the time.  Sometimes it even feels like I’m being punished for doing what I believe is right.

Early on in my marriage, I found out that I had been betrayed by not just a friend from church, but a childhood friend that I considered to be the closest person in my extended family.  In later years, a child was born, connecting me to this person in a way I never expected or wanted.   I felt the extreme pain of hurt, disappointment, confusion and loss.  Did I ever feel like hurting her in return or “telling her off”?  No.  Now, you might not believe me, but it’s true.  I spent the latter parts of my marriage trying to do what was right, even for her and her child.  Though the marriage ended (for other reasons), I believe that I still did what I was supposed to do for all involved.  

Prayer and continual talking (and listening) to God were my behaviors during that time.  Did I get mad?  Yeah—my ex will tell you that.  Did I act on my anger?  No—in fact, I worked harder to accept what was going on.  You see, when God puts you in a situation, there is no time for focusing on what it’s doing to you.  It’s all about working through and getting to the other side.  Was it hard?  IT WAS THE HARDEST THING I HAD EVER DONE IN MY LIFE.  My human side kept fighting to get out…I was so stressed during that time.  But I knew that God would take care of everything I was going through and we would be alright.  Even in the loss of the friend and eventually my marriage, I felt God was with me and I rested in His arms.  During that time, my faith was strengthened to the point that I found that I didn’t need to handle the rough stuff—God would be there to give me peace.  That’s all vengeance is anyway, isn’t it?  Trying to grab back some peace in the midst of your storm.  Well, what if I told you that you could experience peace before, during AND after your storm?  The answer is this:  GIVE IT ALL OVER TO GOD.  He CAN and WILL handle all of it.

Am I saying that you need to go through life and be taken advantage of and never tell someone that they hurt you?  No—I’ve had those conversations and will tell someone in a minute if I feel I’ve been wronged.  But that’s all I’ve ever done.  The rest isn’t my job, nor is it my business to know if someone paid for what they did.

For those of you who are church goers—would you fight someone who stood in the way of your being with the person you love?  Would you go off on someone who betrayed you in some way?  Do you feel that your form of justice is fair and would God be pleased with your behavior?  I offer you a better way.  Go to God, give Him your burdens, your hurts, and your pain.  THEN WATCH HIM WORK!!!!

ONWARD!!!

Where is your Faith?

There have been many times in my life where I proposed to set up my “Plan B” or “Backup Plan” when things didn’t go as planned.  Sometimes, I would pray first, but other times I would just move forward “Bull in China Shop”-Style!  This would have good and not so good results.  The bible has many instances of following God’s will versus ours.  One in particular is the Widow and her son who had enough food left for one meal.  It was the plan of the Widow to make the last loaf of bread and then she and her son would eventually die of starvation.  It was her final plan—she had run out of other resources, or so she thought.  As she was gathering the last ingredients for their last meal, she met up with the Prophet Elisha, who had been told earlier by God that he would be fed by a Widow woman and for him to go…yeah, just GO.  God gave him the path, but not the actual city or name of the woman.

When he encountered the Widow woman, he did not know she was in the process of preparing to fix what they believed to be their last meal, until he asked her to fix him some food.  Now, as a mother, it is my first thought to care for my children and I can become pretty defiant in defense of them!  I would assume that this mother was no different.  However, when Elisha asked her for some food, she did state that it was to be their last meal, but that she would make the meal for him.

We often are faced with insurmountable odds—at least, that’s what we think they are.  Sometimes, these instances are just opportunities for God to develop and increase our faith.  Circumstances that seem impossible to overcome are just hiccups to God and with time, allow us to increase our faith.  As we know, when the Widow made the meal for Elisha, God provided that from that point, her grain container would never empty!!  How many opportunities have we had fizzle because we didn’t have enough faith to see them through?  How many blessings have been lost because we thought the task was too hard because we couldn’t see past the task?

Check your faith.  If you are in a difficult space in life and you have no answer to fix it, give it to God.  Then open your mind to receive what God has for you.  He wants to bring you through it—you only need to hold to your faith, trust and believe, then WALK IN IT.  It may not make sense to you, but remember God’s ways are NOT our ways, so it’s okay.  Walk in your faith.  I promise you’ll never be the same.

ONWARD!!