These three words pack one of the most important messages you may ever hear. This often-quoted Bible passage is only a portion of Romans 12:19. The full verse reads:
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY, SAYS THE LORD.”
In an earlier devotion (November 2nd) we discussed how our minds play an important part in the overall health of our bodies. The whole field of psychosomatic illness became a hard reality to us as we touched upon how faulty emotions can wreak havoc with just about every part of our bodies.
Here we come to one of God’s eternal laws. This law of negative emotions states that if we continue to harbor thoughts of anger, hatred and bitterness toward others, over time the decay and destruction of our bodies is certain.
In our present environment, where so much of the vitality of life depends upon the things we can see and touch, it is utterly remarkable how in actuality the invisible forces in our universe dominate every avenue of our existence.
The air we breathe is essential for living. Without it we would die in a matter of minutes; yet it is invisible. The force that holds our planet Earth in orbit around the sun, gravity, again cannot be seen with our eyes. Whenever we turn on a light, radio, T.V. or one of the host of modern appliances in our homes, the energy source that makes them all work, electricity, is invisible to us.
The chair you are sitting on is made up of countless trillions of atoms, so tiny that nobody can see them. According to Kenneth Taylor:
“Since it is true that atoms are mostly empty space dotted occasionally by weightless electrons with great distance between, it is also true that the chair you are sitting on is mostly nothingness, held together by the force of whirling electrons moving so rapidly that they cannot be crushed. No wonder the Bible says that the things that appear are made of things not seen.”1
Yes, even our thoughts are invisible and weightless. How we use them, however, holds the keys to our emotional well-being and ultimately our health. If we allow ourselves to hold bitter feelings toward others, hoping that we can somehow take revenge on them or that they get what they deserve, we are setting into motion an elaborate self-destruct mechanism.
Our thoughts either carry positive or negative energy. Bitterness is a negatively charged thought that is transmitted, by the brain, throughout the entire body, reaching trillions of cells in a matter of seconds. This great cell disrupter over days, months and years is electrocuting, in a sense, all of our bodily systems. Not only that, if we are not careful, this negatively charged energy will literally blast holes in our stomachs, colon and intestines, bring about massive ruptures in our arteries and in many cases cause our hearts to beat no more.
God knew all about this and wisely admonished us to allow Him to handle the whole vengeance question. When we turn this burden over to Him, our load becomes much lighter. But the Bible goes a step further and gives us another eternal law. This second eternal law can be summed up best by another verse, well familiar to us all: “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF” (Galatians 5:14).
If we allowed this timeless advice to govern our lives, we would see such a surge of positive energy pulsating throughout our bodies that there would be little room left to house the negative thoughts we so often dwell upon.
1 Kenneth N. Taylor, Creation and Evolution (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1977), pp. 29-31.