“Therefore if your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head.” (Rom 12:20)
- “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom 12:21)
Can we overcome evil with good? Can we forgive seventy times seven?
Peter asked Jesus how often he had to forgive his brother and Christ told him every time his brother repented, he was to forgive him.
- Matthew 18:21-22: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”
Even though we are to forgive those who hurt us that doesn’t mean that we have to spend time with them. We can go our separate ways but we must also be courteous, kind, humble and merciful to them when we see them.
- "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;” (Col 3:12)
Even though it may be difficult sometimes to let go and not think about how badly you feel and how badly you were treated by someone, if you can ‘divorce’ yourself from the pain that you feel and just try to do what you believe Christ would want you to do, it is a relief and it releases you from wanting revenge, and also releases stress from you! When you realize that some day that person or persons will understand and truly repent of hurting you, and that someday this will pass, then you can let go and feel energized again!
God will help us through all of our grievances. And things that we cannot work out for ourselves, we have to let go and let Him work them out.
God looks on the heart and He looks on the evil doers in a different way than we do. He looks on them as they will be when they are converted! Because when they become converted they will repent of their evil deeds and they also will be given eternal life! We as humans may get upset at this and feel that they aren’t getting their just desserts! Humanly speaking we may want others to suffer for what they have done to us, but aren’t we thankful that Christ doesn’t feel that way?
- "And be you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." (Eph 4:32)
There would be no hope for us if Christ held a grudge! Christ knows how hard it is for us to forgive sometimes, but, He told us to come to Him and ask for help with anything that we need, even the need to be forgiving!
- Matthew 21:22: ‘And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”
This is a promise and God keeps His promises!
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