“Avoiding Tit For Tat”
Wednesday, January 8, 2025Key Verse
“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
Text —Romans 12:17-21
Message
Revenge is seeking to hurt someone for hurting you. Scientists have proved that revenge may give an immediate emotional satisfaction, but it continues to harm the revenger in the long run. Francis Bacon says, “A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal.” Nursing an offence keeps pressure continually building up in your brain, releasing doses of poisonous chemicals into your bloodstream. So, revenge hurts the revenger more than his or her target.
Exacting revenge is the natural human response to offences and that is exactly where being born again by grace makes a difference. When your adversaries take the low road, grace enables you to take the high. Just like Christ – when His adversaries came to arrest Him and Peter cut off one man’s ear, Christ had enough compassion to heal the man’s ear. And on the cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them.” The best way to demonstrate Christ in you is to be like Him. Becoming like Christ, however, is not by imitation but by transformation of life through repentance and faith in Him.
Quote
Revenge hurts the revenger more
Challenge
Choose to demonstrate Christ-like forgiveness today.
Prayer for today