Do you toss restlessly tonight, dreaming of ways to "get even" with someone tomorrow for a wrong they have done you?

Newspapers and television bombard us with violence, much of which stems from someone "getting even" for a real or imagined hurt. We're being conditioned to think that taking matters into our own hands is perfectly all right. "After all, if I don't do something, who will?" Many Christians have even mistakenly come to believe that this is their God-given right, although God Himself says something quite different.

The biblical term for "getting even" is vengeance. Plotting vengeance can rob you of peaceful sleep. How often have you fallen into the trap of lying awake rehearsing how you would "punish" someone - by something you would say or maybe by not speaking to them at all?

God says to leave this to Him: "For we know Him Who said, Vengeance is Mine - retribution and the meting out of full justice rest with Me; I will repay - I will exact the compensation, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge and determine and solve and settle the cause and the cases of His people" (Hebrews 10:30, AMPC).

Examine your heart tonight for any hidden forms of vengeance and cleanse yourself of all of them. Trust God to handle it and then have very sweet dreams.

Heavenly Father, I acknowledge You as the righteous Judge. I place all bitterness, anger, and thoughts of retribution in Your hands, trusting that in Your time and in Your way, perfect justice will be achieved. In Jesus' Name, Amen.