Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Where There Is Injury
Have you ever found the taste of revenge sweet? Does there lurk in your heart, as in mine at times, a desire for at least the milder forms of revenge if you have been hurt--a desire to see the person apologize, an urge to remind him that he was nasty to you, or even the temptation to pay him back somehow? It was not God's plan that man should take revenge. That He has reserved for Himself, and when we seize that power we are taking a huge risk. It is, in another form, the risk Adam and Eve took when they ate the forbidden fruit--arrogating to themselves powers, lethal burdens, for which they were never designed.
What if God paid us for our sins? What if He were not Love? His mercy is everlasting and has brought us salvation and forgiveness. Remembering that, and how we ourselves have offended Him times without number, shall we dare to retaliate when someone sins against us? Think of the measure of forgiveness God has offered us. Think of the price. Think what the cross means. Then pray the prayer of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace--
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon....
For it is in forgiving that we are forgiven,
It is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:2
Let Thy Words Be Few
A Christian businessman who served on the board of a college with my father told me what sort of board member my father was. He would wait until others had had their say and would then rise. He felt it was important to stand, though others did not usually do so, in order to be heard clearly. With a few well-chosen words he would then state his own position. He could be counted on to say more in these few words, and to say it more clearly and simply, than any of the others. My friend said he found himself waiting for what my father would say.
I knew from our home training how valuable time was to him. He was deeply conscientious not to waste it, whether it was his own or (especially) others'.
He did not like to waste words. They were tools to be used skillfully and carefully.
"God is in heaven and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few" (Eccl 5:2 AV).