By Lisa Wilmore
…When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud. “You are more righteous that I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today…”( 1 Samuel 24:16-22).
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I greet you in the only name that matters. That name is JESUS. He is our everlasting, eternal and endless Savior. In Him we can delight in the fact that through Him we have Life and have it more abundantly.
Our focus for this message today deals with resisting the desire to retaliate against someone who has done you wrong. In other words, resist the desire to pay evil for evil.
There may be occurrences when it comes easy to retaliate against that person who has wronged you or caused problems in your life. Basically, sometimes the retaliation may come through a conversation where you find yourself sowing seeds of discord or providing false information that would have a negative impact on the person’s character. We must resist the desire to retaliate; but instead, show the love of Jesus who resides in our hearts.
As a point of reference, we must consider the biblical account of David and Soul. In 1 Samuel Chapter 24, our aforementioned text, David could have killed Saul, Israel’s first king. Although Saul was in pursuit to kill and destroy David, David spared Saul’s life and displayed respect for him because he was God’s chosen and anointed king. Even though David’s men wanted him to kill Saul, David would not retaliate or do to Saul what others thought was the best recourse of action.
Who has done you wrong and the spirit of retaliation permeated your heart and mind? What terrible thing has someone done to you that has caused you to devise a plan of retaliation? STOP!!! Resist the desire to retaliate. My godly advice to you is, “Let Jesus fix it”. As David honored God’s anointed, He allowed God to fix his problem and resisted retaliatory actions against his enemy.
Retaliation is not of God. His Word emphasizes, “Do not take revenge, my dear 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 your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink”’ (Romans 12:19-21 NIV).
“Reward them good, when they reward you evil.”
Jesus Saves!
