A New Mercy - The One Year Salt and Light Devotional

Romans 12:14-16

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. (Romans 12:14)

SCRIPTURE TELLS US THAT THE spoken word is concrete. It sets things in motion. That’s why the blessing Isaac mistakenly gave to Jacob instead of Esau couldn’t just be taken back (Genesis 27); the mercenary prophecies of Balaam that so confounded his patron, King Balak, could not be erased with a “never mind” (Numbers 22–23); and the words of prophets actually effected things in spiritual and material realms (Ezekiel 37:1-14). God gave Aaron and his priestly successors a blessing to speak over the people because it actually accomplished something (Numbers 6:22-27). Words sent into the world have the potential to transform it.

That’s a lot of power to have, and the temptations to use it selfishly are great—especially in the matter of blessing and cursing the people around us. Clearly, we would want to bless our friends and family, and maybe a few strangers we meet along the way. But our enemies? Our old way of seeing things might tempt us to cast curses on them. But our new vision fills our hearts with a new mercy. Jesus said that loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors makes us like our Father (Matthew 5:44-45), and our transformation into his image will include an entirely new perspective on them. The urge to curse must be overcome by the desire to bless.

In your renewed vision, how do you see your enemies? As adversaries? Or as wounded people acting out of past hurts and abuses, who don’t yet know the promise or completeness of God’s restoration? Though everyone is responsible for their malicious words and actions, the conditions behind them are usually pitiful. God sees an opportunity to bless and transform. So must we.

Take advantage of that opportunity. Your words of blessing invite God to pursue hearts and change lives. They set in motion profound spiritual effects that may or may not ever be visible to human eyes. Most of all, they reflect the heart of your Father and further his mission in this world.

{Father, in every contentious relationship, lift my eyes to see as you see—to look beyond the surface and see the pain and the wounds of resistant hearts. Fill my mouth with words of blessing, and respond to them with your transforming grace. Amen.