Vengeance is Mine...I mean Yours

The D.O.V.E. Women's Ministry at Antioch Christian Fellowship, my home church, has recently kicked off a book club.  Our first book of the new year is one by Liz Curtis Higgs titled Bad Girls of the Bible.  The book details the scriptural stories of ten of the Bible's "femme fatales."  While reading through the story of Potiphar's Wife and Joseph, I had a sudden epiphany...

Most of us know the story.  Joseph was well-liked by Potiphar, the Egyptian captain of the guard, and the story goes that Potiphar had placed him (Joseph) in charge of his household.  In fact, Genesis 39:4 said that Potiphar had "entrusted to his care everything that he owned."  Which, of course, included Potiphar's wife.  To make a long story short, Potiphar's Wife, who according to scripture was a bit neglected by her husband and "bored", set her eyes upon Joseph.  After making her move and being rebuffed by a lowly Hebrew boy such as Joseph, she lied to her husband and accused Joseph of trying to rape her - which landed Joseph in jail.

Now, this is where my epiphany comes in.  I know that in the end, this was all a part of God's plan.  Joseph ends up being placed in charge of the prison, eventually started interpreting Pharoah's dreams, which ultimately led to finding favor in Pharoah's eyes and being placed in charge of all of Egypt - second to only Pharoah himself.  He was then able to save the life of his family and blah, blah, blah.  You may be able to tell where I'm headed with this.  While this pivotal Biblical story has already progressed and, to me, is one the best Biblical stories that is evidential of God's providence, I am still stuck back at the beginning when Potiphar's Wife is lying on him.  And this is where God opened my eyes to an area of my life that I need to address.  I am sometimes so concerned with what I consider to be the injustices of my life (especially those that I can directly attribute to others), that I miss the overall blessing and fail to see the beauty in God's plan.  I am really hung up on the whole "vengeance is mine said the Lord" thing.  Don't get me wrong, I am all for God avenging me...I'm convinced that he's better at it than I can ever be.  But I just wanna be on the sideline watching the vengeance in action and be able to stick my tongue out or give a "I told you so" once it's done. 

There are some things that people have done or continue to do to me that has really challenged me in this area.  Most of the time, I find it easy to cast my cares on God and allow Him to fight my battles at first.  However, as time progresses, I find it hard to leave my burdens at the altar.  Especially when there seems to be no fire and brimstone raining down from heaven to right my wrongs.  Not only is this a sign of immaturity in my spiritual walk, but it also still allows the devil to have the victory.  My prayer right now is that I begin to focus my heart on heavenly things.  That I worry more about the reputation that I have in God's eyes instead of the eyes of others.  I also pray that when I say that I'm casting my cares upon God and I tell others that I answer to but one and that's my heavenly Father, that they aren't mere words but my heart finds rest and peace in that. Amen...