If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. 22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)
You've heard the saying, "Fight fire with fire." Our natural inclination is to take revenge and to get even when someone wrongs us. Sometimes our revenge is active as we retaliate. At other times, it is passive as we pull out the weapon of the cold shoulder.
God's weapon for dealing with those who have wronged us is kindness. Kindness will tear down the walls of defense and open up a entry way into your enemy's heart. Kindness will either win your enemy over... or so baffle him that he'll not know what to do. Kindness towards those who wrong us also comes with a promised reward from God.
Who is on your "hit list?" Ask God to show you a kind act you can do for them. Trust God on this... follow through... and see what happens!
Per a commentary for the New English Translation: The imagery of the “burning coals” represents pangs of conscience, more readily effected by kindness than by violence. These coals produce the sharp pain of contrition through regret (e.g., 18:19; 20:22; 24:17; Gen 42-45; 1 Sam 24:18-20; Rom 12:20). The coals then would be an implied comparison with a searing conscience.
ReplyDeleteThe second consequence of treating enemies with kindness is that the Lord will reward the act.
Performing an act of kindness with the intent of heaping coals makes me wonder if the Lord would bless the act. However, when we are submitted to the Lord and our every action is one of kindness, grace, mercy, love... in honor and reverence to the Lord, then we have moved aside and provided room for the blessings and the rewards of the Lord as is promised a righteous person.
I think it is human to look for revenge when somebody wronged us, as well as to expect the revenge of the one to whom you have done something wrong, but it just happened to me several times to answer with kindness and to literally blow away that person. So, just like you said, God's word related to this will work 100%!
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