“Resentment kills a fool” (Job. 5:2). “Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many” (Heb. 12:15). “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:31-32).
Heavenly Father, how much more “in our face” can you get? “Resentment kills a fool.” Couldn’t you’ve have just said. “To be resentful isn’t nice”? But every time you “get in our face,” it’s always to drive us into more of your grace. Thank you, and keep doing that.
Resentment can well up as soon as we get overlooked, feel underappreciated, or are unfairly blamed. Or when someone takes the cookie we hid in the frig, or when we’re left off a guest list, or when we get outraced to the intersection, gas pump, parking spot, checkout line… and the list goes on.
Father, that’s not who we want to be. We’d far rather be hair-triggered towards mercy and kindness than irritation and resentment. Today, like every day, we enter a broken world, filled with broken people, as our broken-yet-beloved selves. May we be quicker to overlook than to judge, more likely to extend grace than call down fire, more ready to “cut some slack” than commit homicide in our hearts.
Make the Gospel more defining than any of the normal disappoints we’ll bump into today (or create). And make it more powerful than our big hurts, fresh pain, and real slights. Write stories of redemption today with the kindness of your heart and the ink of your grace. So Very Amen.