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You probably know this already: Once you get boiling mad, it’s hard to see things objectively anymore. You get steamed up—ticked off!—and you are on a no-detours course to “make things right.”
You might say things like…
- “They need to know what they did wrong!”
- “He’s got this coming to him!”
- “She needs to get a taste of her own medicine!”
The unspoken completion of all of those phrases is the dangerous part. What we’re really saying is, “He needs to know what he did wrong, and I’m just the one to tell him!” Or, “She needs to get a taste of her own medicine, and I’m just the one to dispense that prescription to her!”
It’s been said that action has killed its thousands; reaction its tens of thousands.
Did he hurt you? Yes!
Is he a jerk for doing so? Absolutely!
Should he get punished for it? Probably!
Are you the one to do it? No. No! NO!
He played the fool… Don’t sink to his level and play the fool yourself!
Wise King Solomon said:
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. (Proverbs 26:4)
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control. (Proverbs 29:11)
So what can you do to the one who injured you?
The best thing you can do is to FORGIVE HIM!
That’s right: leave him in God’s hands. Let the All-Righteous Judge deal with him. Don’t stay wounded, because you are continuing to allow your injurer to keep you trapped, to keep you wounded. Leave him in God’s hands by taking your hands off of him!
Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. (Romans 12:17-19)
Don’t play the fool! Forgive him and let God take it from there.
If you want to check out the other messages in our series called Ticked Off! you may click here.
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Craig T. Owens 
September 24, 2012 at 10:04 am
A great prayer from Peter Marshall:
Help me to be an instrument of Thine to alleviate the pain, by this day:
returning good for evil,
returning soft answers for sharp criticisms,
being polite when I receive rudeness,
being understanding when I am confronted by ignorance and stupidity.
So may I, in gentleness and love, check the hasty answer, choke back the unkind retort, and thus short-circuit some of the bitterness and unkindness that has overflowed Thy world. I ask this in the name of Jesus, who alone can give me the grace so to act.
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September 24, 2012 at 11:36 am
Another great quote, this one from Max Lucado:
“Give the grace you’ve been given. You don’t endorse the deeds of your offender when you do. Jesus didn’t endorse your sins by forgiving you. Grace doesn’t tell the daughter to like the father who molested her. It doesn’t tell the oppressed to wink at injustice. The grace-defined person still sends thieves to jail and expects and ex to pay child support. Grace is not blind. It sees the hurt full well. But grace chooses to see God’s forgiveness even more. It refuses to let hurts poison the heart. ‘See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many’ (Heb. 12:15 NIV). Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. Where grace abounds, forgiveness grows.”
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September 26, 2012 at 9:29 am
From Billy Graham:
“When someone hurts us, our natural instinct is to strike back–but when we do, we not only destroy any possibility of reconciliation, but we also allow anger and hate to control us.”
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March 6, 2023 at 7:28 pm
[…] Don’t Play The Fool […]
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