I Want to Make Them Pay

Somebody did you wrong, and a part of you wants them to pay for it.

You replay what they did on a loop.

In your head, you rehearse the speech you'd give them if you ever got the chance.

You catch yourself hoping something in their life finally cracks, so they feel a fraction of what you felt.

You wouldn't call it revenge out loud. You'd call it justice.

If you're honest, when it's just you, it isn't only that you want it made right. You want them to hurt.

What they did was not small.

Some of you were cut deep by the one person who was supposed to have your back. That was real, and it left a mark.

Hear me on this. God is not asking you to pretend it didn't happen.

He never once says let it go like it didn't matter.

What He says is, vengeance is His. I will repay.

That word "repay" is a money word.

What they did to you racked up a real debt. God is not waving it off. He's telling you whose desk it belongs on.

Somewhere along the way you appointed yourself the collector.

You made yourself judge and debt collector both, and that job is wearing you down, because it was never yours to work.

God says hand Me the bill.

They still owe it. He just collects better than you ever could, and He never loses the paperwork.

There's another side to this, though.

You owe a debt too.

Every one of us ran one up against God.

We lied when the truth cost too much. We paid Him back for years of patience with a shrug.

If the rule is that people should pay for what they did, that blade cuts toward you too.

At the cross, He didn't make you pay it.

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross."

Colossians 2:14 (KJV)

Jesus took your whole bill into His own body, carried it up that hill, and three days later walked out of the grave with it stamped paid.

You can hand Him their debt because He already paid yours in blood.

That's why you can walk away from the collections desk.

Not because justice stopped mattering, but because it matters so much God put it on Himself.

Here's how to hand over the debt today:

1. Take it to God and hand Him the bill.

Tell Him exactly what they did and how it still hurts. He is not scared of your anger.

Then say it plain: this one is Yours to collect, not mine.

You'll have to do it more than once, so every time the replay starts, hand it back over.

2. Pray for them before you feel like it.

Not a soft prayer. Ask God to actually get ahold of them.

It feels backwards, and it's the thing that finally loosens their grip on you.

3. Stop rehearsing the speech.

When the imaginary confrontation fires up, catch it and shut it down.

You're not letting them win. You're taking your peace back.

PRAYER

Lord, You saw exactly what they did to me, and You know how badly I've wanted them to pay for it.

I've been working a collections job that was never mine, and it's run me into the ground.

You already settled the debt I owed You, in the body of Your own Son, and that's the only reason I can let this go.

Today I'm handing You their bill. Yours to collect, not mine.

Every time the replay kicks back on, remind me I already signed it over to You.

Do something in them that a grudge from me could never pull off.

In Jesus' mighty name. Amen.