TeaTime Devotional August 7th, 2025

Written By: Shevon Patterson

HE CAN HANDLE IT

Scripture: Proverbs 20:22 NIV

Do not say, I’ll pay you back for this wrong! Wait for the Lord, and he will avenge you.”

Testify:

 I will be the first to acknowledge that I was a fighter. Most of my fights were with people who bullied me and eventually I got sick and tired and wanted revenge. My revenge was my hands. I’d walk up, run up, or find a way to pullup on anybody. When I think about it now, they would make me feel so low, that most of the time I couldn’t even form or find words. They talked about my hair, my clothes, shoes, and my body. Fighting them seemed like the right answer at the time.   I allowed these bullies to rob me of school activities, healthy relationships and my self-esteem.  Fighting and taking revenge myself also got me suspended from school and in trouble when I got home. Ultimately it didn’t stop the bullying either, I would beat up one and another one form.

Edify:

I know that I am not the only one that wanted to get somebody.   I also know that when I ask Jesus to get people, I sometimes think, that my revenge is better and feels better to me.  Sometimes we don’t give God the chance to fight our battles for us. When we think it’s too much for us, we start to come up with our own plans to fight back. Our forms of revenge don’t nothing. Fighting back with ill intentions does nothing but put us in worse situations. We must put on the armor of God. We have to let God handle the fight and grasp the understanding that we’re meant to go through some things and we need to have patience.  Looking back on my fighting days, I should have told myself that he can handle it much better than I can.

Apply:

Don’t keep pulling up in your own strength, let God work it out for you.

Pulling up, walking up, or running up on your own is never the answer, let God pull up!