160 WHAT YOU DO TO ME
160 WHAT YOU DO TO ME
Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
As a servant and beloved friend of Jesus and His father, Christians are being watched by them 24/7. There is no time in a Christian’s life when God does not see what we are doing and what others do to us.
In the 12th chapter of the book of Romans, the apostle Paul, speaking by the Holy Spirit, teaches us how to behave ourselves before God, among each other and toward those who don’t serve God. By reading, believing and doing what he has written, we are showing our love for Jesus, His father and our fellow Christians and doing what is right toward those people that hate God.
AFTER we show God that we love Him and are struggling to obey Him in this scripture, this promise, which God kind of slipped in there, is active in our lives.
We are commanded not to seek vengeance for the wrongs that are done to us but to seek righteousness, mercy and compassion and let God see what happened and let Him decide what and how He will deal with those who wrong us.
Once we understand and believe this scripture, our job is to obey and God WILL keep His part. Those of us that love mankind and wish the best for them should feel sorry for those people who take advantage of us, use us for their personal gain and hate us; doing all kinds of hateful and hurtful things to us and our families.
Unlike mankind that will immediately repay a wrong with physical hurt or a craftily planned and hurtful scheme, God takes His time and brings a long, slow and very painful destruction into the lives of our enemies.
He does this for two reasons: first, because He is continually watching them to see if they will feel sorrow for what they have done to us and repent; bringing their lives into a correct relationship with Him and us. Second, as their destruction progresses and they harden their hearts and don’t care, He sees that they deserve what they are getting and will give them more. Their own actions will increase their own hurt.
God’s vengeance is not like anything that we see happening by retaliation done by human beings. A wrong to us will not cause a person to die 10 minutes later. [Although God is still God and can do anything He wants.]
Usually, when someone does us a wrong, God starts taking away the things that they want. Depending on the hateful nature of the act, God starts recompensing but the results are not obvious for some time. A mild wrong may result in the hate filled person’s car suddenly breaking down or hitting their hand with a hammer. The more hyenas the act against us, the more severe God’s vengeance; eventually taking income, wealth, friends, family members and health [both physical and mental] away from those that hate God and His people.
This all takes place in this world, in this life and while that person is still able to understand and repent. If they don’t have a change of heart and ask God to forgive them, then, upon their death, they will immediately find themselves in a place of torment and pain. They will also realize that that place will not change or allow them to leave for ever; all eternity will be a torment for them as they move from there, at God’s final judgement, to the lake of fire called ‘hell’.
You see, what you do to me counts in your future and what I do counts in your future.
