Let It Go

Romans 12:17-19

17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.


Live at peace with everyone, that sounds like a great ide, and it is one that is attainable, however it take quite a bit of discipline on our part. For us to be at peace with others we first have to be at peace with ourselves. That means that we have to learn to let things go. We cannot hold tight to the wrongs that have been done to us. We have to forgive. You don’t have to forget, you don’t have to hand out a free pass, and let people walk all over you, but you do have to forgive them, and move on. As the passages reads: Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.

This same theme is throughout the teachings of Christ. Do unto others, as you would have done to you. (Luke 6:1) Or, But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:15). The only way we can truly forgive is to let go. We cannot go around holding all of the baggage, it will be too heavy for the trip ahead of us. Throughout our life we will be wronged, and persecuted, we will have people go out of their way to attack us. It happens all the time to everyone. We must remember not to burn our precious time and energy on plotting revenge, or looking for opportunities to “settle the score”. Just leave room for God’s wrath, and be done with it.

When we let go of all of the hate, and hurt that we carry around we open up more room in our hearts for Christ to come in and work. If we think about it, when we let those emotions harbor and fester inside of us, not only do we close ourselves off to the Lord, we are letting that person who already hurt us once, continue to hurt us on a daily basis. When we give up all of those wasted emotions we regain control over our world. We must remember that we are the children of God, no hurt done to us here in this world can match the hurt that Christ suffered for us. Oh I know what you are thinking, that I just do not know how badly you have been hurt, or all of the things that you have gone through. I tell you the truth, turn that pain over to the Lord. Let him sort it out, and avenge you.

I do want to be clear here, you should remove yourself from the person that is hurting you, you have to protect yourself, but what’s done is done. Being a Christian does not mean that you are a floor mat, but once the situation is over it is over, you cannot change it; you can only change how you let it effect you.

I think of it this way. Christ died for each and everyone of us, yet we are all sinners, we all stumble and fall. The Lord does not hold a grudge; he lives in the hope and anticipation of us realizing our mistake, and coming back to him. HE is always looking for the lost sheep, he is happier when the seep return that he is about the ones that stayed and never left. If Christ will do that for us, how can we hold a grudge against our brother?

Peace,
Rev. T