MY DAMAGED CAR BUMPER
Some months ago, my wife and I with our little boy were coming from work in the evening, as I drove close to our street’s around-about, we met a long hold-up traffic, just as I was driving out of the traffic, I saw this Okada guy (commercial motor cycle rider) riding roughly, waved from the car in front of me and seriously hit our car in the front. The motorcycle rolled away as the guy tumbled and fell down somewhere. I decided to park from the road, not to block other vehicles coming. I saw my car’s bumper completely damaged.

For me go and meet the Okada guy who was lying on the road with his bike, I was surprised that the guy had vanished with his motorcycle, his colleagues helped him to escaped, knowing fully well that he had bought a market he didn't plan for which he might not be able to afford. I managed driving the car home and took it to workshop the following day to change the bumper and the small light, the expenses I didn't budge for.

THE OFFENDED AND THE OFFENDER
I wasn't happy with the situation that happened as the guy damaged my car and escaped without saying “sorry” thinking that he was smart and putting me in additional expenses I didn't budge for, but what do I want? Do I want God to provide for me and replenish my pocket more in 100 folds of what I spent to repair the car or I want God to punish the okada guy who damaged my car in 100 fold? Or I want both? This I was meditating and God used the incident to teach me this valuable lesson…..

Prosperity Or Punishment?
When somebody tenderly or terribly offends you, and you are painfully affected, what is the outermost desire of your heart, do you want God to replenish your loss and prosper you even more than before as you move on with your life and forget about the offense with the offender as you move on to enjoy the joy and multiple blessings of God, or the outermost desire of your mind is for God to punish the offender that she or he will regret it in life forever for what she or her did to you as you stay somewhere in bitterness and unforgiveness, waiting for the news of calamity from the offender? If God should choose the top desire of your heart when you are offended, is it going to be the prosperity and progress of your own dear life or punishment of your enemy or the person who hurts you?

Unfortunately, many Christians are after God to punish their offenders than for God to prosper and replenish their lost, boasting, “Except if I am not serving a living God, you will see.....” And what do you stand to gain to see your offender becoming miserable? I heard a not-funny story of pastor’s wife in her neighborhood, her neighbor offended her and she was seriously hurt, though she didn’t want to raise her voice and begin to curse as her old way of life before she became converted, yet she was so hurt in her feeling that she didn’t just want to let go, so she said, “Oh except if I am not serving a true God, except if you didn’t hurt me, that my God will not ruin and destroy your life, that He will not scatter your life in pieces…..” The woman ended up raising curses on her neighbor in the name of God.

The Replenish mentality VS Revenge Mentality
Sometimes, God allows some losses to come our ways so He can use the occasion to multiply us and replenish our losses even in 100 folds, but many times we do not key in to gain God plans to unleash His blessings on us after the loss, we are after the revenge of the offender because of our old mentality.

When someone unlawfully breaks away from you in business, maybe your worker or partner, when someone breaks away from you in marital relationship, in ministry or in anyway, what is your outermost desire? Is it for God to replenish and multiply you as you move on from the spot the person left you? Or that God should punish the person who unlawfully breaks away and become miserable that he or she will come back begging you as you remain in the same spot, tied down by bitterness and unforgiveness in the same spot?

When Lot unlawfully broke away from Abraham with the best portion, thinking he was smart, what was God’s concern for Abraham? Did God tell Abraham, “My son, don’t worry I will punish Lot, and he will regret what he did, he will know you have a great God who called you out from your father’s house.” No, God did not say that to Abraham, because God knows Abraham has nothing to gain from the punishment of Lot, but God told Abraham:

“And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. 16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.” Genesis 13:14-16.

That is the mind of God for all His children, how He will replenish and multiply us when we have a loss, when someone offends us, when people unlawfully break away from us in business, in marital relationship, in ministry or in anyway; and this mind of God for greater replenishment should also be our mentality, not for revenge. We should repent from every bitterness or unforgiveness as a result of evil or loss anybody caused us, and trust God to use every occasion to work for our betterment. We should also pray for the offenders and break-away people that God should save them just as Abraham prayed for Lot –

Genesis 18:23-33, we should wait on the Lord for their salvation, not waiting for calamity to befall them. We may not need them in our lives again, (especially if you are not married the person) but as we go on our different paths, we should desire good news from both sides. That was the mentality of Abraham.

The mind of God is that we should pray for our enemies, those who despitefully used us with our finance, with our time resources, in marriage or in anyway, as we do this God will cause replenishment and refreshment into our lives and cause repentance to the offender, and only the devil will be the looser. Amen!

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

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