Showing God’s Kindness and Mercy..what the Bible says..
By Joel Osteen
Evil is never overcome by more evil. If you mistreat people who are mistreating you, you will make matters worse. When you express anger to somebody who has been angry with you, it’s like adding fuel to a fire. No, we overcome evil with good. When somebody hurts you, the only way you can overcome it is by showing them mercy, forgiving them, and doing what is right. Keep taking the high road and be kind and courteous. Keep walking in love and have a good attitude. God sees what you’re doing. He sees you going the extra mile to do what’s right, and He will make sure your good actions and attitude will overcome that evil. If you’ll keep doing the right thing, you will come out far ahead of where you would have been had you fought fire with fire.
The Bible says, “God is our vindicator.” He will not let you lose out. You may think you’re getting the short end of the stick, but when it’s all said and done, God will make sure that you don’t lose anything truly valuable. Moreover, He’ll make sure you get your just reward. Your responsibility is to remain calm and peaceable even when those around you are not.
Overcome Evil with Good
The Bible says, “Love overlooks a person’s faults.” That’s not always easy but love believes the best in every person. Anybody can return evil for evil, but God wants His people to help heal wounded hearts. If somebody is not treating you right today go out of your way to be kinder than usual to that person. If your husband is not serving God, don’t go around beating him over the head with your Bible, preaching at him, nagging him, coercing him to come to church with you. No, just start being extra kind to him. Start loving him in a fresh way. The Bible says, “It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.” If you will be extra good and inordinately kind, before long God’s goodness expressed through you will overcome that evil. Friend, love never fails.
The Bible says, “Love doesn’t hold a grudge. Love doesn’t harbor unforgiveness.” You may have people in your life who have done you great wrong, and you have a right to be angry and bitter. You may feel as though your whole life has been stolen away by somebody who has mistreated you or deceived you. But if you will choose to let go of your grudge and forgive them, you can overcome that evil with good. You can get to the point where you can look at the people who have hurt you and return good for evil. If you do that, God will pour out His favor in your life in a fresh way He will honor you; He will reward you, and He’ll make those wrongs right.
When you can bless your worst enemies and do good to those who have used or abused you, that’s when God will take that evil and turn it around for good. No matter what you’ve gone through, no matter who hurt you or whose fault it was, let it go. Don’t try to get even. Don’t hold a grudge. Don’t try to pay them back. God says show mercy. Aim for kindness. Seek to do good. We have to remember that God is the one keeping the score. He is in control. And when you bless your enemies, you will never lose. God will always make it up to you.
Go the Extra Mile
Maybe you feel that you’re the one who’s doing all the giving in some situation. Because people know you are kind, generous, and friendly, they tend to take advantage of you or not appreciate you. But God sees your integrity. Nothing that you do goes unnoticed by God. He’s keeping the records, and He will reward you in due time.
Don’t grow weary in well doing. God is a just God, and He sees not just what you are doing but why you are doing it. God judges our motives as well as our actions. And because of your unselfishness, because you prefer others, because you’re aiming for kindness, one day God will say to you as He did to Abraham, “As far as you can see, I’m going to give it to you.” Sometimes when we’re good to people and we go the extra mile, we have a tendency to think, I’m letting people walk all over me. I’m letting them take advantage of me. They’re taking what rightfully belongs to me. That’s when you have to say “Nobody is taking anything from me. I am freely giving it to them. I’m blessing them on purpose, knowing that God is going to make it up to me.
God sees your acts of kindness and mercy as well. When you are kind to people, when you go around doing good to people, God arranges for others to leave behind “handfuls” of good things for you. You will find a handful of blessings over here, a handful of blessings over there, supernatural favors over here, an unexpected promotion over there. Everywhere you go, you will discover the supernatural blessings of God lying in your path, left there for you by God.
The Bible says, “See that none of you repays another evil for evil, but always aim to show kindness and seek to do good to one another and to everybody.” Notice the words aim and seek in this verse. God is saying we must be proactive. We should be on the lookout to share His mercy, kindness, and goodness with people. We must aim for kindness and seek to do good. Moreover, we need to be kind to people even when they don’t deserve it. We need to walk in love and be courteous even when somebody is unkind to us.
The Bible says, “We are to love our enemies. We are to do good to them that spitefully use us.” Daddy often said, “Everybody deserves to have a bad day once in a while.” We’ve got to give people room to have a bad day.When you are placed in awkward situations where somebody doesn’t treat you right, you have a golden opportunity to help heal a wounded heart. Keep in mind, hurting people often hurt other people as a result of their own pain. If somebody is rude and inconsiderate, you can almost be certain that they have some unresolved issues inside. They have some major problems, anger, resentment, or some heartache they are trying to cope with or overcome. The last thing they need is for you to make matters worse by responding angrily.
The Bible says, “We are to love our enemies. We are to do good to them that spitefully use us.” Daddy often said, “Everybody deserves to have a bad day once in a while.” We’ve got to give people room to have a bad day.When you are placed in awkward situations where somebody doesn’t treat you right, you have a golden opportunity to help heal a wounded heart. Keep in mind, hurting people often hurt other people as a result of their own pain. If somebody is rude and inconsiderate, you can almost be certain that they have some unresolved issues inside. They have some major problems, anger, resentment, or some heartache they are trying to cope with or overcome. The last thing they need is for you to make matters worse by responding angrily.
Evil is never overcome by more evil. If you mistreat people who are mistreating you, you will make matters worse. When you express anger to somebody who has been angry with you, it’s like adding fuel to a fire. No, we overcome evil with good. When somebody hurts you, the only way you can overcome it is by showing them mercy, forgiving them, and doing what is right. Keep taking the high road and be kind and courteous. Keep walking in love and have a good attitude. God sees what you’re doing. He sees you going the extra mile to do what’s right, and He will make sure your good actions and attitude will overcome that evil. If you’ll keep doing the right thing, you will come out far ahead of where you would have been had you fought fire with fire.
The Bible says, “God is our vindicator.” He will not let you lose out. You may think you’re getting the short end of the stick, but when it’s all said and done, God will make sure that you don’t lose anything truly valuable. Moreover, He’ll make sure you get your just reward. Your responsibility is to remain calm and peaceable even when those around you are not.
Overcome Evil with Good
The Bible says, “Love overlooks a person’s faults.” That’s not always easy but love believes the best in every person. Anybody can return evil for evil, but God wants His people to help heal wounded hearts. If somebody is not treating you right today go out of your way to be kinder than usual to that person. If your husband is not serving God, don’t go around beating him over the head with your Bible, preaching at him, nagging him, coercing him to come to church with you. No, just start being extra kind to him. Start loving him in a fresh way. The Bible says, “It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.” If you will be extra good and inordinately kind, before long God’s goodness expressed through you will overcome that evil. Friend, love never fails.
The Bible says, “Love doesn’t hold a grudge. Love doesn’t harbor unforgiveness.” You may have people in your life who have done you great wrong, and you have a right to be angry and bitter. You may feel as though your whole life has been stolen away by somebody who has mistreated you or deceived you. But if you will choose to let go of your grudge and forgive them, you can overcome that evil with good. You can get to the point where you can look at the people who have hurt you and return good for evil. If you do that, God will pour out His favor in your life in a fresh way He will honor you; He will reward you, and He’ll make those wrongs right.
When you can bless your worst enemies and do good to those who have used or abused you, that’s when God will take that evil and turn it around for good. No matter what you’ve gone through, no matter who hurt you or whose fault it was, let it go. Don’t try to get even. Don’t hold a grudge. Don’t try to pay them back. God says show mercy. Aim for kindness. Seek to do good. We have to remember that God is the one keeping the score. He is in control. And when you bless your enemies, you will never lose. God will always make it up to you.
Go the Extra Mile
Maybe you feel that you’re the one who’s doing all the giving in some situation. Because people know you are kind, generous, and friendly, they tend to take advantage of you or not appreciate you. But God sees your integrity. Nothing that you do goes unnoticed by God. He’s keeping the records, and He will reward you in due time.
Don’t grow weary in well doing. God is a just God, and He sees not just what you are doing but why you are doing it. God judges our motives as well as our actions. And because of your unselfishness, because you prefer others, because you’re aiming for kindness, one day God will say to you as He did to Abraham, “As far as you can see, I’m going to give it to you.” Sometimes when we’re good to people and we go the extra mile, we have a tendency to think, I’m letting people walk all over me. I’m letting them take advantage of me. They’re taking what rightfully belongs to me. That’s when you have to say “Nobody is taking anything from me. I am freely giving it to them. I’m blessing them on purpose, knowing that God is going to make it up to me.
God sees your acts of kindness and mercy as well. When you are kind to people, when you go around doing good to people, God arranges for others to leave behind “handfuls” of good things for you. You will find a handful of blessings over here, a handful of blessings over there, supernatural favors over here, an unexpected promotion over there. Everywhere you go, you will discover the supernatural blessings of God lying in your path, left there for you by God.
posted by Jowl at
10:31 PM
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