Category: Knowing God

“Do 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.” Romans 12:19

Sometimes a person might hurt us by saying or doing something mean to us. When that happens, we often want to “get them back.” We want to make them hurt even worse so they will know not to be mean to us again. This is not the attitude a Christian should have.

Paul told the Romans that we should not avenge ourselves. To avenge is to do evil to someone because they have done evil to us. God reminds us that He will punish all evil at the day of judgment. Instead of getting mad (“giving place to wrath”), the one who loves God must show kindness to the person doing wrong. In the next verse, Paul says to feed your enemy if he is hungry. By doing good you make him feel bad for being mean to you. Even if he does not feel guilty, you will have done the right thing and God will punish the person if he does not repent.

Ultimately, we want the person to repent and serve God. When he repents, he will feel sorry for any wrongs. We should help him turn from his meanness, not return hatred for hatred.

“What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31

We learn from this passage to have confidence that God will always be with us. When I was little, I would get scared when a loud thunderstorm came through at night. However, I always prayed to God because I knew that He would hear me. Even if the storm was bad enough to kill me, I knew God would take me to His home where no storms and nothing bad would ever hurt me.

God loves His children and will never leave them. Though we may have to face bullies in school, sadness and disappointment when something does not happen the way we wanted, or loneliness, God is always there with us to give us strength and to listen as we open our hearts to Him in prayer.

When we pray, we should tell God all of the things that we are happy and sad about. We should ask Him to help us with problems and to help other people do what is right. God wants us to talk with Him and to share our feelings with Him. God can help us, and He is always ready to listen.

A favorite story of mine is in 2 Kings 6:15-17. The king of Syria was mad because every time he took his army to fight Israel, the king of Israel would move his army away before they arrived. The king of Syria thought someone in his army was telling the king of Israel where he was going to attack. One of the Syrians told the king that it was Elisha, the prophet, who warned Israel.

The king of Syria went by night and surrounded the city where Elisha was staying. The next morning, Elisha’s servant woke up and saw the Syrian army all around the city. He was very scared. He asked Elisha what they should do. Elisha was not scared.

Elisha said, “Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and God allowed Elisha’s servant to see the great army of God, full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha. Although Elisha’s servant did not see God’s army before, it was there.

Like Elisha’s servant, we cannot see God or know for sure what He is doing, but we have His promise that He will never, ever leave us or turn His back on us. God does not lie so we can trust that He is always with us, helping us.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5

One of the greatest blessings we can ask of God is wisdom to do what is right. When Solomon became king of Israel God gave him wisdom far above any man has ever had because Solomon asked for it.

James tells us to ask for wisdom from God. Wisdom is not the same thing as knowledge. Knowledge is an understanding of the facts. We only get knowledge through study. The more we study, the more we will know. This is why we should be studying a little bit of our Bible every day.

Wisdom is the ability to use our knowledge to make good decisions. We get wisdom from our experience. If you touch a pot on a stove and burn your finger, you quickly learn not to touch pots on the stove.

You can also get wisdom from other people’s experience. If you read or hear about someone who did some foolish thing and was hurt, or who did a good thing and was rewarded, you learn how you should and should not act. It is smart to learn from other people’s mistakes and success. The Bible is filled with such stories for our benefit.

But James says we can also pray for wisdom and God will give it to us as long as we ask without doubting. Pray every day for wisdom and God will give it to you.

“You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:14

What would it take to be a friend of God? Abraham was called the friend of God, James 2:23. We know that Abraham had faith in God; he trusted God with his life. Abraham obeyed God’s command and pleased Him, Hebrews 11:6.

Jesus told His disciples that if they did what He commanded, they would prove their friendship to Him. We cannot say that we love Jesus and not do what He says, Luke 6:46.

Jesus proved His friendship by dying for us in order to save us from sin. In the verse before our memory verse, John 15:13, Jesus said that the greatest love anyone could show would be to die for his friends. Jesus showed us that He is the greatest friend we will ever have by sacrificing Himself to save us.

Knowing His love for us, and that He showed His love for us before He demanded obedience, how can we not obey Him? He wants us to be safe in this world and saved eternally. If we follow His commandments we will enjoy a wonderful life on this earth and a home in heaven. Jesus is our friend; let us show him we are His friends.

“…it is appointed for men to die once but after this comes the judgment” Hebrews 9:27

We do not like to think of death often but it is a fact that we will all die someday. Some die when they are young, some when they are old, but all will die.

While we live we should enjoy life and do the things that bring us joy. However, we must remember that God will judge us for the things we say and do (Ecclesiastes 11:9-10; Matthew 12:36). When we sin we must ask God to forgive us and give us strength and wisdom when tempted.

For God’s children death is not the end of life but the beginning of a never ending life with God. We should do nothing that would cause us to die, but when death comes, God’s child can know that God will be waiting for them.

The Hebrew writer says that death is an appointment. If you have an appointment with a doctor, you have a time reserved when you can see the doctor. We do not know when we will die but when that time comes, we must be ready to meet God because we will stand before Him and He will judge us. We will not be able to change or ignore that appointment but we can obey Him so that when we do meet Him, He will say, “Well done, enter into the joy of your Lord.”