When it comes to getting even with someone who has hurt or betrayed our personal pride, feelings, or even injured our body, the downward spiral of evenness can only bring more hurt than the original offense. The problem with getting even is the process always brings a person down to a lower level of existence of being because the original offense or slight was already a low blow. You end up at the bottom with the bottom feeders, so to speak, and coming back up to where the Lord is trying to mature your soul can be a hard and arduous time. This is why God says vengeance is His affair and not ours to take into our own hands.
God knows the right judgment for the offender and the right cure for those affected. God’s purpose is to get both sides into a righteous plan of love and honor. God understands the discipline needed for the offender and the right curing ointment for the one who got hurt. Satan wants us angry at the world so that we become a reactionary and violent people continually living is a state of craving vengeance. John 10:10a The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. At this point, madness creeps into our once peaceful lives and we become unhappy victims of offence.
By this time vengefulness reaches a generational feud, then getting even is no longer the point and the atrocities become greater. We can see this in our recent history with the fallout from the second world war and the festering hurts that came up again in the Kosovo conflict of the 1990s. It will never stop till someone says, “I forgive you and I do it with the grace of God.” Luke 6:28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
This is why I say when people get involved in this endless eye for an eye lifestyle, they become the bottom feeders in society. They are always looking down to a greater baseness of vengeful fulfillment rather than looking up to heaven for healing for their generational hurts.
Jesus uses a reference to put on His yoke. The picture is you are yoked or walking even with Him side-by-side, working out all the problems and hurts. As long as we stay yoked, we will be even with the Lord and that is a place to put our energies into getting even. Let us get close and personal with our Savior. That path leads to forgiveness and peace. May we all find it.
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