Warning: Jesus Talk
There’s nothing more comforting to me than sitting in my favorite chair with a cup of coffee, looking out on my beautiful trees, and settling in with an inspiring devotion. Then I get dressed and go to work. Comfort vanishes.
No matter how hard I try to find consistency, I live in separate worlds. My home, where it is peaceful and calm. Work, where it feels like walking into the Thunderdome each morning. The farther I get into my day, the farther away I feel from God. I post scriptures on sticky notes that remind me I am working for the Lord. I listen to podcasts on my lunch hour. I watch YouTube videos from good Christian women. But then someone on my team makes a mistake and my micro-managing boss comes to me looking for blood. The “mean girls,” who can’t seem to grow beyond their eighth grade mentality hone their passive-aggressive skills on me. The person who is better at sucking up than doing their job gets a promotion. That’s when I find myself going for the revenge scriptures.
Have you ever done that? You know a situation is out of your control, but you still want to see justice done so you go looking for those darker promises from God. I found one particularly inspiring and yet confusing verse for those times. It’s Romans 16:20 and it says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” I love this verse so much. I’m a God of peace, but I’m going to go ahead and crush you now. Have a nice day.
As much as I might enjoy setting a table for my enemies, I know that what the Lord really wants me to do is abide in him. Stay close to him. Instead of wasting my energy on the petty foolishness surrounding me, I need to remember He is right there with me. He is in control. I lean on Psalm 16:8. “I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me.”
Sometimes, as much as I’d love to see God administer a good smack down, I know most of the situations that make me want to stand up and shout “Victim! They’re being mean to me!” are really not that bad. They’re just people, and although I can’t control what they do to me, I can control my reaction to them. If I’m abiding in God, if I have Him right beside me, all I need to do is turn to Him. If I have Him right there beside me, He wants me to focus on him, not their pettiness. I trust that if they need a whoopin’, God will get to it in His time.
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