In God’s Word, there is a big difference between being a
conqueror and being victorious. You may ask, don’t they
both bring about the same results? And what God wants us
to know is that no, they don’t. If you conquer something, that
means you are giving yourself all the credit for the defeat,
and therefore, you will forever be fighting against this thing. It
will always be around somewhere, to haunt you. This is not
victory in the least. God gives the victory when we step aside
and let Him do His thing His way. He tells us that we don’t
own our battles, they are His and He will take care of them,
as long as we give Him permission.

When God gives us the victory, that means it’s done,
finished, never to be brought up again. It’s “outa here!” Why
do you think God says, “Vengeance is Mine!” He knows if we
take matters into our own hands, we won’t do a complete
and thorough job of it. We may conquer something
temporarily, but victory is not ours.

It’s a common thing for people to seek vengeance on
others. It gives temporary satisfaction to take matters into
your own hands and get revenge. We like to call it, “sweet
revenge”. But it’s not sweet in the least. In fact, it gets putrid
after awhile. Retaliation is a typical human response when
we feel we’ve been wronged. Someone has to pay. But, if
God said it was His job, why then don’t we let Him do His
job? Who do we think we are to play god and make
someone suffer as we suffer? This fulfills the lust of the
flesh, and grieves the spirit. Our type of vengeance is short
lived. We become overtaken with guilt and regret and have
created a negative situation that may never be healed. This
is not what God wants. If He has free reign to deal with our
problems, we can rest assured that we will be more than
conquerors, we will be victorious. When God settles a
problem, it will disappear and we will be free to rejoice.

God gives us this perfect example in His Word. We tend to
miss the whole point of His Word if we don’t ask Him to
reveal it to us. We are not wise in our own eyes and can’t
expect to just pick up on the deeper meanings that lay
beneath the words that are written in black and white. God’s
examples are for our own good. We really need to pay
attention to them and put them into action.

This example is given in 1 Sam. 25. The story unfolds when
David had supplied for Nabal’s men, giving them
whatever they needed out of compassion. He had expected
the favor to be returned to him by Nabal himself. Nabal was
a very rich man and very easily could’ve returned the
compassion on David and his men. But because he had a
foolish and wicked heart, which is what “Nabal” means, he
refused David’s request. We all know someone with a
wicked and foolish heart, but we don’t have the right to get
even with them.

This led David to wanting to seek revenge on Nabal’s life.
We tend to over step our bounds like this when someone
makes us mad. We wish to do them harm. At that moment,
we feel that someone else’s suffering will bring us great
satisfaction. All we have on our minds is, “I guess I showed
them.” But, this is exactly what God doesn’t want us to do.
This will lead to greater problems afterward. It’s only our
near sightedness that we don’t look that far into the future.
Thank God, He does and can stop us from making a foolish
mistake that could last a lifetime.

Nabal had a very wise wife named Abigail. Her husband’s
men reported to her what David had done for them.

“So know this and consider what you will do, for evil is
determined against our master and all his house. For he is
such a wicked man that one cannot speak to him.” 1 Sam.
25:17 (Amplified)

David thought it was his right to bring death upon Nabal
because he was so wicked. We experience all kinds of
relationships like that today. We judge others by what we
think of them instead of letting God handle the situation.

When Abigail had heard this, she hurriedly gathered enough
provisions for David and his men and met him half way and
there she pleaded for her husband’s life that David should
not take matters into his own hands. She made David
realize that he was not an evil man that he should do this act
of evil out of revenge.

“Forgive, I pray you, the trespass of your handmaid, for the
Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my
lord is fighting the Lord’s battles, and evil has not been
found in you all your days.” 1 Sam. 25:28 (Amplified)

She goes on in the next verse to tell David that God will
vindicate his battles against his enemies. In verse 31,
Abigail explains to David that he will be spared the
staggering grief of this, he will not have any pangs of guilt
because of his conscience. It’s the guilt we feel afterwards
that is far worse as a result of our selfish pride. So, here,
Abigail is the peacemaker and makes David realize that this
is the Lord’s battle to do with as He wishes only because
David would not be able to do a complete job of it for
himself. That’s the way it is for us today when we plot
someone else’s demise. It will all come back on us in a
bigger way, and we have conquered nothing. We certainly
will not get the victory.

Abigail is also an example of people in relationships that
one may serve God and the other one doesn’t. We can not
allow the weaker link to bring us down to their level. We
must remain faithful and strong in our convictions that God
will settle the matter His way.

When Abigail told Nabal what had happened he got so
upset that he became paralyzed and helpless. After 10 days
God smote him and he died. (1 Sam. 25:37)

This left David praising God for handling the situation His
way, the right way and kept David from doing evil. God had
repaid the wickedness of Nabal and He will do the same for
those who oppose us if they mean to do us harm. Just step
back and let God do what God does best!

This story reflects the true act of love and compassion
through Jesus Christ in our lives. Jesus was not out to get
revenge on those who beat Him, spit on Him, blasphemed
Him, hung Him on a cross and jeered at Him. It was His
final words that they be forgiven. If we are in Christ and
Christ is in us, then shouldn’t we forgive those who hurt us
and ask God to make us victorious so that He will get all the
glory? What are we showing others when we act out in
revenge? Not a thing, and this is not why Christ came to give
up His life for us.

The next time you are faced with a situation that makes you
want revenge, step away from it, and give it to God so that
you will be kept from doing evil. He will make you more than
a conqueror, He will make you victorious!

Remember, God has chosen us for His own elect and we
are sanctified and made righteous in His image. That
means we have an awesome responsibilty to keep up that
image. We are no longer like those in the world, we are His
special saints and just don’t need to stoop to anyone’s level.
Have compassion on those who persecute you, pray for
them and ask God to bless them. This only promotes you in
His kingdom and He will vindicate you without guilt. You are
free! This is being able to step away from what the devil
wants you to do. It’s victorious to know you are no longer
under the enemy’s thumb!

True freedom is not in having your own way, but in yielding
to God’s way!

Vivian Gordon writes inspirational and spiritual articles
in which to help strengthen the Believer’s walk in Christ.
They are often taken from today’s point of view and
used in conjunction with what God says about certain
situations and how we are to handle them. There is
always an answer for every problem. These articles are
not all about asking God “why?” but in finding the
answers.