Feed our Enemies

(A double verse day and a little bit longer devotional)

This past week, before I prepped for this devo, I felt the Lord asking me to stop reacting negatively to others. It has been difficult. I am a taxi driver for the Amish community, which results in driving a lot of early mornings/nights when it is quite dark along narrow country roads. Other cars on the road occasionally will keep their high beams on even when they are close. It can be very blinding and makes it tough to see the road. (It has long been a pet peeve of mine). My usual reaction is to immediately put on my high beams or sometimes, I’ll wait till they are 100 ft away and then flick on my high beams. “How dare they not think of me and try to blind me on purpose” “How dare they be so reckless” “How dare they ignore the rules of the road” are just a few thoughts going through my perturbed state of mind. I can be listening to worship music, see high beams and immediately forget worship. By God’s grace, this week my lights have not been flicked in anger once (Its only Tuesday though).

      The oncoming vehicles are being driven by people I probably do not know personally. But, what if I did know them, and they continued to do it on purpose? What if their whole family did it to my family every time, they knew it was us driving?   Kinda absurd huh? Well, over the years, there have been plenty of family feuds / rivalries that started and continued over such seemingly trivial circumstances.  Hopefully you do not have anyone you are feuding with on your birthday but, in reality, most of us have missed having a family member / friend wish us well on our birthday due to a strained relationship or outright feud. Today with the advent of social media, those things happen quite often. Or at least it seems that way.  

    It appears like there is SO much turmoil & hatred in our world BUT we know that “there is nothing new under the sun”. We are not different than the last thousand generations. Proverbs were written in the 10th century BC & Romans @57 AD. Both Solomon & Paul talked about conflict – personal conflict. In Romans 12:20, Paul quotes Proverbs. 25:21-22. Earlier in Proverbs 12:2, we are told to hate evil. Earlier in Romans 12 Paul instructed us how to use our spiritual gifts and then finishes it off (vs 14-21) with how to deal with conflict.  Proverbs 12:20 – Solomon contrasts evil & peace. Deceit is in the heart of those who plot evil – plotting evil means it is premeditated – not reactionary. Joy is a result of promoting peace – again a premeditated action – promotion is planned. Promotion takes thought and action. Paul urges us to be at peace with everyone, imploring us to let the Lord take revenge (handle the outcome). That is why we are to feed our enemy and give them something to drink. We can trust to leave the job of judging up to a Holy, Righteous and Loving God. He probably has a very different plan and method for them than I do. Ultimately that will allow us to overcome evil with good. When Paul quotes Proverbs 25:21-22, he leaves off the last part of vs 22.  Proverbs 25 – end of vs 22 – “and Yahweh will reward you”.  I believe Paul leaves out the “reward” part because he wants us to do the hard thing and trust God for the outcome – not do it solely for the reward. Yet there is a cool reward.

      With those truths in mind, lets decide to handle conflict the way God intended. Romans 12:14-21 is a great guide when we are dealing with a minor infraction, an ongoing battle, or a long-standing feud. If you are involved with any of these – take the first step, ask forgiveness from God and then the offended party. If they do not forgive then take the next step and do something nice for that person. Promote peace – it produces joy. Worst case scenario it will make them feel bad (coals of fire on their head) and you feel joyful. Best case scenario – you both end up resolving your conflict and you both are filled with joy. That would make a great birthday gift. Imagine if social media accounts were filled with stories of reconciliation. That reminds me, I should go flag down a few “high beamers” and take them out for breakfast.

Dave R

 ’69 / ’83  Quarryville PA