Do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” says the Lord. Romans 12:19
RECOMMENDED READING: ROMANS 12:6-21 “6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good..”
COMMENTS: Romans 12:19 “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, as it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
Do you recall a time you were treated unfairly or someone hurt you or someone you love either deliberately or accidently hurt you? Have you forgiven them or do you harbor hatred for them. Are you reluctant to forgive because you still want the guilty person to feel at least some of the pain they inflicted? Consider Jonah. God called him to preach redemption to the Ninevites, who were guilty of murder and enslavement of his countrymen and probably his own family.
We all have been hurt by others. Often by thoughtless words or careless acts that inflicted unintended harm. But what about deliberate actions or malicious words that inflicted harm. What about instances when results caused permanent damage or even death? How can we forgive such actions? How is it possible to forgive such actions?
Forgiveness is what we are commanded to do. Yes, even to forgive ourselves. The Lord’s Prayer even states for God to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us.
So, the question is not should we forgive but how can we forgive? In order to do so, we need to think about just how perfect and sinless God the Father is, God the Son is, and God the Holy Spirit is. A perfect God sees the best of us as sinful as the worst of us. On our best day we are infinitely short of God perfect standard and example. Christ’s life was perfectly sinless and pure, but He took on our sins and God judgment on those sins as though they were His own. When He forgives us, we are just as guilty as the worst person we can imagine. We may seem good compared to them, but from Christ’s perspective, we are hopelessly sinful and unworthy. When we finally sin our sins like He does and His love for us like He does, then we begin to experience the motivation to likewise forgive those who sin against us. Consider Christ’s Lord’s Prayer and the condition of His forgiveness toward us. His sacrifice on the cross paid for our sins and His forgiveness but we must do two things. We must accept His forgiveness and repent of our sins. We must also forgive those who hurt and sin against us. When we are unforgiving, we think we are administering justice to offender but in reality, we are inflicting more harm on ourselves than we are to the intended culprit. When we forgive and leave responsibility of justice to God, we free ourselves and allow God to forgive us too. When we forgive, we are allowing ourselves to be forgiven and enable God heal. Remember, He loves others as much as He loves us and desires they be know His mercy as much as He desires us to. His love isn’t diminished to others because we don’t like them or even hate them. Nor is His love for us diminished when we refuse to forgive. But His Grace can not be given to us unless we receive it, which requires us to forgive too. So, it is really up to us. God is willing but we must too. It is a partnership with God towards life instead of death. Towards joy and peace instead of misery and war. Towards eternal life instead of eternal punishment and separation from God.
We can forgive, but not alone. God’s help is needed and He is eager to give that help. He has provided His Holy Spirit 24x7x365 to provide personal one to one help and strength. He is not setting us up to fail but to to be succeed. Remember, Christ did the hard part. He so deserves our faithfulness and obedience. He also deserves our forgiveness to others. They don’t deserve our forgiveness but WE DON’T DESERVE HIS FORGIVENESS EITHER. NO ONE DOES, BUT HIS FORGIVENESS IS AVAILABLE TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO SIMPLY ACCEPTS IT AND LETS HIM INTO THEIR SOUL AND LIVES. THAT IS THE WONDERFUL HEALING GOOD NEWS HE WANTS US TO SHARE AND GOOD NEWS WE NEED TO SHARE. AMEN? AMEN!
“We can leave justice to God. He will take care of it for us, as He did for Christ, who refused to retaliate.” Erwin W. Lutzer
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 200 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.
You may also access my facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/
My hope and prayer is, they will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.
Published by donsdevotions
Don McDaniel - Who am I?
Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever.
Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me.
I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private.
However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool.
Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry.
He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 .
I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine.
I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward.
Don & Arlene McDaniel
In His Service,
Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ )
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials. View all posts by donsdevotions
donsdevotions 