“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Romans 12:21 NIV
No one is immune to having difficult circumstances come up in their lives. Everything from car troubles to relationship issues can plague our daily experiences. Since we are talking about how we react to such situations, we are talking about what we can control. If we run into a problem where there has been a judgmental attitude, hurtful words or just unfair actions, how do we react?
Our flesh will scream out to you for you to react in kind, hurt for hurt, pain for pain. Yet Jesus is telling us how we should react, we give goodness for evil. Reacting in kind to what we often receive from others does not change the equation, just makes it worse. Jesus changed our destiny by offering us his forgiveness and salvation for our acts of evil and unforgiveness. Jesus overcame sin death and the grave not by more evil but by his love and sacrifice. He offered goodness in response to a world full of sin.
That is how we change our equation, our future, by reacting in grace the same way Jesus reacted to our sin. We are called to be overcomers and we do so by the goodness of God in our lives. You will face adversity! React to it in the goodness God has shown us and overcome the evil in our lives!
In Christ
RJ