Ouch!

Sometimes the things people say and do can really hurt! Even those people who love us the most can hurt us. It's so tempting to hold on to these hurts and offenses. Today's society is so offense-oriented. I believe it's because we have adopted a "look out for number one" attitude. We are so worried about protecting ourselves and our rights, getting what we want when we want it. There are even times we take on the offenses of others in our lives - those people we love and want to protect. But aren't we again doing Someone else's job? God is in charge of taking care of us. He says in His word, "Vengence is mine, I will repay". Darrel and I have been contemplating this scripture. We've always looked at it in a way where God is saying He will get our enemies good! But I think He is saying something different. Because He loves even those who hurt us, He isn't saying that He will get them back for what they've done to us. We have come to the conclusion that God is simply telling us to relax and not take on all these offenses. Don't worry about what you've lost or how you've been hurt - He will take care of you in all these things - He will repay to you what has been stolen from you - He's got your back! We are so focused on vengence - but Jesus told us to turn the other cheek, to walk two miles if asked to walk one, to forgive seventy times seven! What we belive He is saying is "Hey, just let it go! You are free to forgive and release not only yourself from the prison of unforgiveness, but those who have offended you as well!" We lose such a great amount of our lives to unforgiveness. Oh, we say we've forgiven and that we're free, but all the while we still hold those who have offended us in prison and bondage - the whole time hiding the key from anyone who would set them free. How sad. God is not about repayment - not yet. Right now, while we are still in this dispensation of grace, He is about restoration and relationship. Yes, there will come a day when those who have been enemies of the cross will get their just reward - but I think we will be surprised that those people will be fewer than those to whom Christ stretched out His loving hand of forgiveness. Heaven will not be sparsely populated. I think you and I will be surprised at just who is there. Those who hurt us? Perhaps. We can never truly know what has transpired in someone's heart. I'm glad of that. That offers hope to even me - who hurts others more often than I would ever want to think. I need His mercy and His grace. So do you. Let it go...