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Proverbs 24:19-20 "Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked; for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out."

 

In our culture of victimization we are always on the lookout to identify who has hurt us and how. Sometimes we have to really stretch to find where we have been victimized and who to pin it on, but we always seem to manage (often with the help of therapy)! This has made us a very unhappy, maladjusted people. What if, instead, we took the Bible's advice, like that of this Proverb, and just let it go? What if we left the evildoers, including those who have hurt us, to God, and stopped fretting? 

 

It is not easy to let go of our desire for justice or vengeance, especially when someone has hurt us in a real, direct, and deep way. But God shows us how to do it. He promises us that the evildoer has no future, his lamp will go out. If we truly trust God and His plan, letting go becomes so much easier. God will take care of the evildoer, we do not have to. God knows our hearts, He knows the hearts of the evildoer, He knows the perfect way to achieve justice, and He will. 

 

It is because we have largely stopped believing in or trusting in God that we are slipping into this unsustainable, miserable, victim culture. If there is no plan and no God to work it out, then justice becomes ours alone to mete out. Our feelings and pains become the dictating principles of who is wicked and how they should be punished. Yesterday I read an article on the rise of witchcraft. The author makes the point that it is a belief system that centers everything in the self, empowering and encouraging its practitioners to punish, hex, or curse as they see fit. This is the opposite of trusting God and fretting not, and it makes for a very frightening and unhappy world. Unfortunately, that's the kind of world we are in right now, and will remain in until we leave the evildoers to God.