MORNING MANNA        11-17-21

Sometimes people we dearly love can be as mean as snakes. They can do hurtful things that are hard to forget. It’s the people we love the most that can hurt us the most, and it’s easy to get bitter or to seek revenge – which the Bible forbids.

I’m sure I don’t need to convince you that we live in an evil world. We can’t escape being exposed to it, but we can do something to avoid being overcome by it. Fact is we are commanded to do so. Overcoming evil is something that God desires and expects. Allowing ourselves to be overcome and failing to overcome evil is a sin.

Now notice both of these—
— “Be not overcome of evil”. I know this is easier said than done, but the difficulty of it doesn’t dismiss us from duty. We live in a difficult and dangerous world therefore we must be vigilant at all times. Evil can come from any direction and it often comes from a place and time that we least expect.

Our foolish natural tendency is to return evil for evil. We tend to feel that we ought to pay people back for the wrong they’re done, but that just makes matters worse. It’s like adding fuel to the fire. Instead, we are to do exactly the opposite. We are to overcome evil with good. Otherwise we allow the failure of others to cause our fall.

George Washington Carver said, “ I will never let another man ruin my life by making me hate him”. That’s a good attitude. We will never overcome evil with evil. We can only change things for the better by loving kindness – doing good to others. Love has great power. It can get attention when nothing else can.

We ought to give the guilty party what they need rather than what they deserve. If that seems unreasonable and unfair to you, you need to think about what God did for you. Our aim should be to heal others not hurt them. Christ died for His enemies, surely we can be kind to ours. We need to have a love beyond limits, love that is unconditional. If we love others as Christ loved us we will be amazed at what God will do. – HDS

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346