Loving Evil

Romans 12:18-21 -  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.  On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Evil threatens us every day.  It seeps in around us and fills every crevice we do not fill fully with the love of Jesus. We try to battle it by ourselves…and when we are wounded Satan would love nothing more than for us to lay down and lick our wounds like a dog….or worse yet cry out in pure uncontrolled emotions …anger controlling us and making the wound larger. 

I am glad God sent this reminder to me…I have fallen in this trap of Satan many times.  I was the woman who yelled furiously at officials when my sons did not get the right call….thrown out of more than one game for my uncontrolled temper.  I was the wife who screamed and pouted when she did not get her way. I held fast to bitterness when I lost a job …for an unjust reason….and let it fester in my heart for years.  And I willingly spoke hatful and angry words about the woman who broke up my marriage…and more than a few about the man who said he just didn’t love me anymore.

This passage reminds us of how to do it right…to love past the pain of the wound and let Jesus heal it.   Paul says…be not overcome or subdued by the evil…but to absorb the evil  with the love of Christ.  Evil only thrives when love is absent…God’s love speaks softly to the anger and uncontrolled emotions of evil and begins to tame it…like a wild horse.  God can use us to speak softly to the evil that we encounter…and help us see how to minister to it….changing it slowly into his love.

I haven’t been thrown out of a ball game in years….and I still remember the sweet peace that washed over me when God took the last bit of hate and bitterness from my heart over that job loss.  I am beginning to see that the divorce was not all my ex spouse’s fault… many of my own sins helped to drive us apart.  I am still working on the pouting and selfishness….that habit was embedded deep into my soul...and God keeps working on it…chipping it away slowly with the love of my church and friends…and the daily messages he sends through his wonderful word.

Oh father…I am so sorry for the years I spent letting evil trick me into being a vessel of hate and anger and revenge.  Thank you ….thank you…thank you…for teaching me how to love instead of hate.  Thank you for the sweet peace that drives me to love you more and more each day.  Help me to take each day…each moment…each new battle one at a time….to stop when I see evil and ask you to show me how to love it…as you did for me on that cross. Amen.