Finally, all
of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as
brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. 9 Don’t repay evil for evil.
Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back
with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you
his blessing.
The world offers us many opportunities to
hand out more pain. It comes through the
things people do to us or maybe how they make us feel. We want to make someone hurt like they hurt
us, but that isn’t what God would have us do.
You may have heard this before: hurting
people hurt people. Yet I also believe that
this is true: blessed people bless people.
The choice is ours. Will we focus
on our pain or our blessing? It sounds
easy. It’s not.
When we choose to bless others we will
seek unity with God and with the people around us. To be at peace with others takes lots of
work, and it also takes trying to understand the people around us.
God made it so that peace comes when
God’s love grips us. He loves us and in
turn love others. Being sensitive to
others can make it possible for people to see or find God as well as for us to
bless the people we come in contact with.
Don’t give back evil when someone does
evil to you. Give a blessing
instead. People will hurt you, insult
you and do things that make life difficult, yet what we focus on will lead us
to love and bless others or to hurt others.
Being kind to and blessing people does
two things. First, it blesses the people
we come in contact with. Second, we will
be blessed by God. That is a promise.
For the Scriptures say, “If you want to enjoy life
and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from
telling lies. 11 Turn away
from evil and do good. Search for peace,
and work to maintain it. 12 The
eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their
prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.”
Do you and I want to be blessed? Then change what you say. Do good and stay away from what is
wrong. Staying close to God is always a
challenge, but it is a challenge with a blessing. God hears the prayers and watches over those
who seek Him.
May our lives return peace instead of
pain to the people around us.
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