Gloating Is A Boomerang!
Mar 04
by Victoria Robinson
The temptation to gloat can be powerful and yet our heavenly Father has warned us of the dangers of doing so. The surest cure for gloating is to pray great things for our enemies. After all one would never gloat over a friend! Job is an excellent example who could certainly have gloated over the wrong assumptions his friends had made about him. Can’t you just see the temptation to gloat when the Lord rebuked them for their bad behavior. He actually could have forgone gloating only because Proverbs tells us, “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him.” Seems like a sweet reward for behaving correctly doesn’t it? Yet our friend Job instead prayed for his friends. Imagine that—after all the abuse he suffered at the hands of his fair-weather friends he sees the blessings of loving them unconditionally! Not only did the Lord have mercy on Job’s friends, He also blessed Job abundantly.
Love does not inflict sorrow upon others, nor does it gloat over the difficulties others are experiencing. Such gloating displeases the Lord, who returns in boomerang fashion the evil intents upon the head of the perpetrator. — KJV Bible Commentary
Dearest girlfriends, let us never gloat over the troubles or missteps of others, instead choosing to pray God’s best for them.
Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him. ~ Proverbs 24:17-18 NIV
He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished. ~ Proverbs 17:5 NIV
After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer. After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before ~ Job 42:7-10 NIV
If I have rejoiced at my enemy’s misfortune or gloated over the trouble that came to him— I have not allowed my mouth to sin by invoking a curse against his life— ~ Job 31:29-30 NIV
Woe to you for making your neighboring lands reel and stagger like drunkards beneath your blows, and then gloating over their nakedness and shame. Soon your own glory will be replaced by shame. Drink down God’s judgment on yourselves. Stagger and fall! ~ Habakkuk 2:15-16 TLB
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV
Tags: assumptions, bad behavior, bible commentary, blessings, boomerang, contempt, fair weather friends, girlfriends, heavenly father, intents, lord have mercy, perpetrator, proverbs, rams, servant job, sorrow, sweet reward, two friends, Victoria Robinson, wrath 
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