God can handle your vengefulness
We’ve come to the last day of our series on brutal honesty with God, and it feels like this week has been full of lament.
And although I encourage you not to get stuck in a negative spiral of ranting and complaining, what I hope you take away from this week is that there’s nothing wrong with a bit of brutal honesty towards God from time to time (Ecclesiastes 3:4).
King David was a master at balancing worship with lamenting. What I find especially intriguing is that more than anyone in the Bible, David prays prayers of vengeance over his enemies. For example:
May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. – Psalms 109:8-10
And
May their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. – Psalms 69:23-24
😳 😳
Those are some brutally honest words right there. David does not sugarcoat his feelings towards his enemies. So, what can we learn from these verses?
Do I encourage you to become a more vengeful person and start wishing harm on people you don’t like? No!
But I do encourage you to release any existing vengeful thoughts you’ve been harbouring in your heart. Not to people, but to God. Because God can handle your vengefulness.
Don’t let those thoughts fester in your mind simply because you feel they’re too unholy to share with the Lord. He already knows them!
It’s a spiritual principle that the things you bring into the light will no longer have a hold over you!
The beauty of both the Psalms I shared above (Psalm 69 and Psalm 109) is that they end with David praising God. He doesn’t dwell on vengeance forever; once he’s given it to God, he turns to joyful praise instead.
