Tit for Tat


“An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind.” ~Mahatma Gandhi~

I am not a fool; I will not let her make me something that I am not. I will turn the other cheek, it is what princesses do. ~Princess Rosalinda from Princess Protection Program by Disney~


Growing up a tomboy, I'd always been a 'tit for tat ' kind of girl. If you messed with me, you'd feel my wrath. My temperment always leaned toward the hotheaded side of the spectrum and I carried this trait right into my Christian life.

I'd read passages about turning the other cheek, loving your enemy, or returning hatred with love and think, "That all sounds great, but I don't want to be a doormatt." My worst fear was being taken advantage of and if you crossed that line, boy were you going to hear about it. So if you can imagine, when I read Luke 6, part of me cringed.


Luke 6:27-30"To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

For a long time I just couldn't wrap my mind around why a loving God would want His people to act like push overs. It seemed weak, wrong, and cruel, but as I learned more about the freedom that is available in Christ, I realized that He wasn't asking me to be a push over, He was giving me the opportunity to be victorious. True freedom is the ability to respond to anything out of who we are in Him, not out of the current circumstances. By responding only out of circumstances we give the power away to whoever is wronging us and let them make us something we are not. We trade in our freedom for bondage.
But by responding out of who we are, we retain power over our circumstances and situations and become victorious, and that's the kind of life God wants for his children.

Comments

  1. Love this :
    " It seemed weak, wrong, and cruel, but as I learned more about the freedom that is available in Christ, I realized that He wasn't asking me to be a push over, He was giving me the opportunity to be victorious."
    Amen!

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