Gospel & Intel by Rhizome Olivia Quondam

Your Vengeance Belongs to God

- Stop scheming. Bitterness is a lie. If you trust God, you will know that God never forgets His promises, God doesn't forsake His people, and God doesn't reward evil.

Romans 12: 19-21 (NASB) 19Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord. 20"BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD." 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

- No matter how angry you are at someone, God is angrier with them. The wrath of God is an all-consuming fire.

Exodus 15:7 (NASB) 7"And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You; You send forth Your burning anger, and it consumes them as chaff."

- When we give our burdens to God, God waits His turn for us to actually and totally surrender our burdens to Him; He takes over when we are 100% finished being vigilantes. God wants all of what we have given to Him, every single promised piece, so He gets all of the glory for what He has done for us. God will avenge us when we stop avenging ourselves. You don't have enough power to even repay them fully, and you never will; God is almighty.  We all will reap whatever we sow too; that's also God's word.

Romans 12: 17 (NASB) Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

- Stop trying to impose a mortal time limit on God; God created time too.  God's timing is perfect. You don't know what God knows. God plans what He promises. Stop worrying about somebody 'getting away with it' in the present, because only God knows the future. Why try to rush God's revenge? For what? Even the cliche "revenge is a dish best served cold" tells us to wait. Everything doesn't have to happen right now just because your pride is wounded. God can take anything/everything from someone whenever He decides to, regardless if it's $100 or 1 trillion, regardless if it's a job or an entire company, regardless if God avenges you  one second later or in seventy years, and so forth. Unlike you, God can do anything and everything. Whenever God avenges you, you will know it was God, because only God could have done that. The longer it takes for God to avenge you (after you have completely give their wrongdoing to God and forgiven your wrongdoer), the more interest they are building indebted to you. God will collect that debt for you if you have faith in God's word, and continue to believe God, instead of obsessing over how things appear. Looks are deceiving, but God is the truth.

Hebrews 12:1-3 (NASB) 1Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

- Stop trying to get even. You can't. No one can get even like God can. Your heart is a liar. Get right with God. You will also sometimes wrong others, and you will need God's grace and mercy to deliver you. Once you give their wrongdoing against you to God, God takes on that debt; once you transfer ownership to God, payment becomes a matter only between that person and God. Stay out of it once you get out of it; you're free from that loss.