God Knows the Vindication You Seek: A 5-Day Reading PlanSampel

DAY 2: God’s Healing Is More Powerful than Vengeance

Gossip is wrong, and I was wrong in how I went about trying to vindicate it. Both things can be true, and this is the case for any offense.

Vengeance is different from biblical confrontation and different from advocacy for biblical justice. Biblical confrontation is motivated by reconciliation, not self-interest, and follows the guidelines Scripture sets forth in Matthew 18:15–17. Biblical justice, which will be discussed more on Day Five, is an alignment with God’s plan for kingdom causes, even if it’s of personal cost to us. Again, the motive is not rooted in self-interests, but in our commitment to follow Christ.

The quick and natural response to pain is to stay angry and vengeful. If we don’t confront our pain, it will stick around. But it isn’t the way to have a good life, and it will preclude us from seeking biblical justice. There is nothing sadder than when someone lets years of living with a resentful attitude take their potential away.

Conversely, there is nothing stronger than a person who hasn’t let other people’s actions toward them turn them bitter and unloving. There is no story as powerful as the one of someone who has committed to stay engaged in a life that has not been fair to them. It takes a lot of Jesus to stop wanting to pay someone back. He is crucial to this equation. If He is handling the business of injustice, globally and personally, He can surely help us move forward despite how the actions of others have threatened to hinder us.

The best way to seek vindication is to let God, who is fully aware of the situation, heal your pain. His healing will be more thorough because He knows what you know and more. In this relationship of intimacy, your pain lessens as your relationship of trust with Jesus grows. This is how people truly become better instead of bitter—God loves them through that process. Once we trust Him enough to do the fighting for us, we will emerge from our victimhood.

Respond

As you study a healthy, biblical approach to dealing with offense and injustice in your life, begin to identify new behaviors you can try. Journal about the results as you embark on this new way of being and doing.