Do not be agitated by evildoers; do not envy those who do wrong. For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants. Trust in the Lord and do what is good; dwell in the land and live securely. Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart’s desires. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act, making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday.
Psalm 37:1-6 HCSB
So right this second, what is on your mind? Well I hope that you are pondering the words of the scripture above. I hope that you are taking that to heart. However, remember this; when we try to do good, when we try to establish a close relationship with the Lord, the devil tries to distract us. He tries to get our mind and our hearts away from God. In doing so, he can convince us to do things that he wants us to do and pull us away from God. If we give the devil the tiniest crack, he will bust the door wide open and take over.
This scripture tells us to not be agitated by evildoers. This is easier said than done my friend. When someone is plotting evil against us it is hard to not become agitated, angry, and vengeful. When someone comes against us, let’s face it we just get downright mad or at least I know that I do. And if you are like me, you want to see immediate justice. You want revenge and you want it right now. Trust God to handle it in His timing. You see God tells us in Romans 12:19 that he will handle the vengeance. He tells us that we are not to seek revenge, but we are to step aside and let Him handle it. Now let me tell you, it took me many years to be able to do this. It is an acquired skill, you really have to work at it. But I learned that God deals way more harshly with someone that comes against His child than I would ever dream of doing. Where I am thinking that a simple slap on the wrist will do, God knocks them down and beats them severely.
We have a job to do. We are called to be as much like God as humanly possible. We are to be kind and loving and compassionate. We are to show others what God looks like. We are to be humble and giving. Now when we start behaving that way, the devil tries his best to stop us. The devil wants us to fail at being a Christian. He wants those around us to look at us and say “I knew it, he claims to be a Christian and just look at how he is acting.” The devil wants to destroy our witness.
It’s kind of like this, imagine that you have won an all expense paid vacation. You may choose between two destinations. One destination provides constant stress and chaos. The second destination provides peace and tranquility where you are pampered beyond belief. Now I don’t know about you but I would definitely choose peace and tranquility over stress and chaos. Now once we choose our destination, we must stay focused and remain on the right path to get there. One wrong turn and we could wind up on the stress and chaos trip. This describes our life, we have a choice to make, heaven or hell. It sounds simple, but the devil does his best to make it so hard for us. He does his best to steal our focus so that we inadvertently wind up on the wrong path.
This is why when someone plots evil against us, we must stay focused on God. When we lose our focus, we can easily stray off course. Remember that the devil is using this person or people to get us off course. So many times people are used by the devil and have no idea. Don’t become one of those that the devil is using.
The Bible very clearly tells us that God does not honor those who do evil and those who are wicked. If you plot revenge against someone who has done something evil or wicked against you, then you bring yourself to their level. You become someone who is evil and wicked. This is why God tells us to leave all the revenge stuff to Him. Our job is to win others to Christ. God’s job is to protect us and avenge us, so leave the evildoers to Him.
It took me many, many years to learn this, but once I did it was such a relief. When someone comes against me I go to God. I focus even harder on my relationship with Him. I thank God for being there for me. I don’t ask Him to take revenge for me because honestly, I know that He is going to do that whether I ask Him to or not. I know that if the person coming against me doesn’t repent and change their wicked ways that they will deal with God’s wrath. God’s wrath is something you never want to face my friend. So I leave the whole revenge thing to God. I have learned that when someone comes against me to focus on God even more. Thank God for this time of trial and tribulation. It makes us grow into stronger Christians.
The bottom line is this, I would much rather delight in the Lord than sit around angry and plotting evil against someone who quite honestly just isn’t worth my time. Because let me tell you this, I don’t care how well you multi task, you cannot delight in the Lord and fume over something your enemy has done to you. You have to choose, what will it be? You want to delight in the Lord and get your heart’s desire or you want to sit around and be angry and plot evil and stoop down to the level of the evil person coming against you? Sadly, I sometimes used to choose seeking revenge, but I am happy to say that I now choose to delight in the Lord and get my heart’s desire.
The other really important thing is that God keeps us safe when we dwell in Him. That is mentioned in Psalm 91 which is an excellent Psalm of protection. You should read it when the enemy comes against you.
My prayer for you today is that you experience the peace, joy, and security that comes from letting God deal with the evil and the wicked. Don’t let those evil, wicked people distract you from your job of leading others to the Lord. Let others wonder how you stay so calm when evil comes against you. Let them wonder what that smile on your face is all about!
Have a great day!