Pastor’s Blog 2.18.20

Romans 12:17-21 TPT
Never hold a grudge or try to get even, but plan your life around the noblest way to benefit others. Do your best to live as everybody’s friend.
Beloved, don’t be obsessed with taking revenge, but leave that to God’s righteous justice. For the Scriptures say:
“If you don’t take justice in your own hands,
I will release justice for you,” says the Lord.
And:
If your enemy is hungry, buy him lunch!
Win him over with kindness.
For your surprising generosity will awaken his conscience,
and God will reward you with favor.
Never let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.

The other day I was watching an older western movie and the hero was avenging those who had killed his family. He hunted them down and killed them one by one. As I was watching I had one of those “God moments”. I was caught up in a moment of contemplation. There was this part of me that took pleasure in seeing the bad guys get what was coming to them. I know it was just a movie created for entertainment, but the flesh took advantage of the scenario for sure. I began thinking how our humanity is so corrupted by sin. We truly need the life of the Holy Spirit to fulfill the desire of God. Paul said it best in Romans 7:20-23:

20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law , that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
NKJV

There are a lot of people who live a lifetime with vengeance in their hearts toward those who have done them wrong. It has been said that “unforgiveness in your heart is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” As believers, we need to keep our fleshly desire for vengeance in the movies and not in our own hearts. I love the rendering of Romans 7 and 8 in the Passion Translation Bible…

Romans 7:15-25 TPT
I’m a mystery to myself, for I want to do what is right, but end up doing what my moral instincts condemn. And if my behavior is not in line with my desire, my conscience still confirms the excellence of the law. And now I realize that it is no longer my true self doing it, but the unwelcome intruder of sin in my humanity. For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it. My lofty desires to do what is good are dashed when I do the things I want to avoid. So if my behavior contradicts my desires to do good, I must conclude that it’s not my true identity doing it, but the unwelcome intruder of sin hindering me from being who I really am.

Through my experience of this principle, I discover that even when I want to do good, evil is ready to sabotage me. Truly, deep within my true identity, I love to do what pleases God. But I discern another power operating in my humanity, waging a war against the moral principles of my conscience and bringing me into captivity as a prisoner to the “law” of sin—this unwelcome intruder in my humanity. What an agonizing situation I am in! So who has the power to rescue this miserable man from the unwelcome intruder of sin and death? I give all my thanks to God, for his mighty power has finally provided a way out through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! So if left to myself, the flesh is aligned with the law of sin, but now my renewed mind is fixed on and submitted to God’s righteous principles.

I want to live life daily with the present mind of the Holy Spirit and never forget what a wonderful thing the Lord has done for me! Thank God for His mercy and unmeasurable kindness in giving us His Holy Spirit and Word of truth!

Be Blessed!