It Doesn't Always Go The Way You Think May 31

Romans 12:20

Rather, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For by doing so you will heap coals of fire upon his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I always chuckle to myself when I hear someone who is having issues with someone else. Inevitably this scripture will come up as advice on how to handle the situation. They'll say something like, 'You know what the scripture says if your enemy is hungry, feed him.'

By now, you should know I have had an encounter with this scripture before. Years ago, my family and I came home from church one Sunday afternoon, and inexplicably my two neighbors just started shouting at us. They made no sense as to why they were so angry at us, and it was just this wild barrage. In hindsight, maybe they were arguing with each other, and when we said 'Hello,' the anger was directed towards us for no reason.

So I thought about this scripture; I went to the store and bought an angel food cake, came home, and walked over to see if I could make amends for whatever had caused them to be so angry, I thought wrong.

To put it kindly, they yelled at me some more, saying they would never eat my cake! So I went home, sat at my dining room table, and ate my angel food cake; it was tough to swallow. I sat there and thought, I've done no wrong, they refused my peace offering, and it had made them angrier, well they can stay mad, and I'll eat my angel food cake. It still didn't feel delicious, I still didn't understand. I expected them to smile and say, 'Thank you, we didn't mean what we said, please forgive us.'

Proverbs 4:7 With all thy getting, get understanding.

Without knowing it, I had heaped coals of fire on their heads; what was I thinking!? When hot coals hit your conscience, you're going to yell at whoever threw them. Eventually, they forgave us, and when it came time to move, they were sorry that I was leaving; we had become friends.

I'll never forget the day I sat by myself at my table and ate angel food cake that tasted like lumps of humiliation. Obeying scripture isn't always easy, but maybe, somehow, they saw Christ in me, or perhaps I saw what Christ had seen in me before I accepted Him as my Lord and Saviour.

He is: El Nahsah

Forgiving God

Blessing's