JULY 28, Romans 12:17-21

Yang En came back from school crying. He had an ugly bruise on his left cheekbone. Mum was naturally concerned and wanted to find out why.
“Daniel punched me!” Yang En sobbed. “He threw my badminton racket on the floor during recess... I pushed him away and he punched me...”

Since that incident, Yang En kept gossiping about Daniel, “... teacher scolded him today... Daniel mixes with those bad upper primary boys... he will be a gangster ...his father came to school today... he will get a bashing from him, I’m sure ...no, I won’t invite him to church, he will bully everyone.”

Do you think Yang En’s attitude is what a Christian should do?

What does God say about our enemies? “Recompense to no man evil for evil” (Romans 12:17). It means we do not give tit for tat. Yang En dared not fight back the bully after that black eye incident because the bully was stronger. But in his heart, he hated the bully and wished the bully would get into trouble. He was secretly rejoicing in his heart when Daniel was punished. Perhaps he might be on the lookout to report Daniel to the discipline master anytime Daniel misbehaved.

God does not want us to take revenge. In fact, He will take revenge for us. He will see to it that the bully is suitably punished. We do not need to plan for our enemy’s downfall. Instead we must do the opposite! We must love him. If he is in need, we must help him! We must overcome evil with good!

“Impossible! No way!” you say.

Mother taught Yang En that he should pray for Daniel. With God’s help, all things are possible, even doing good to our enemies. They will see the love of God through your behaviour and may even come to church!

Thought: If God can forgive us, why can’t we forgive others?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for today’s lesson. I know I have never done it but today, I’d like to pray for someone I don’t really like (insert names____________) Help me to be kind to them and forgive and love them like how You love me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.