“Sin always masquerades as fun and games. But pull back the curtain of the deceived human heart, and what you’ll find hiding there will drive you to your knees to pray for that person. And maybe that’s the very reason God instructs us to pray for our enemies.”- Lysa TerKeurst
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ . . . Do not be over come by evil, but overcome evil with good.”- Romans 12:18-19, 21 (ESV)
As Lysa TerKeurst continues Chapter 8 of Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, Lysa TerKeurst talks about five truths she leans on when struggling to step toward forgiveness. Lysa presents the first two truths today.
1. Forgiveness is more satisfying than revenge. Lysa astutely observes that revenge consists of paying twice for the hurt someone else did to you. Certainly, you pay a price when someone hurts you. However, you pay double when you carry that pain inside your heart. Because it causes you to say and do things uncharacteristic of you.
In the long term, exacting revenge always costs you more on an emotional and spiritual level that you’d ever want to pay. Thus, Lysa counsels:
“The only thing your revenge will do is add your wrongdoing on top of theirs. Forgiveness releases to the Lord your need for them to be punished or corrected, giving it to the only One who can do this with right measures of justice and mercy.”
2. Our God is not a do-nothing God. When you suffer so much that each breath seems excruciating and your offender seems to thrive and prosper, it’s easy to assume God’s doing nothing. But, Lysa stresses, we don’t serve a do-nothing God. Since God’s always working, with God there’s always a meanwhile.
Therefore, remember that God’s in the midst of it all. Even though your offender makes their sinful choices seem really good, that’s not the complete story. Only God knows the full truth.
Today’s question: How is it helpful to know that sin always masquerades as fun and games? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “An epic defeat of the enemy”
