You Can Have the Last Laugh

God has a plan for us to succeed even when we’re treated unfairly. Our human nature wants to fix things on our own; getting even with someone, repaying evil for evil, but that’s not God’s plan. Scripture says, “Never avenge yourself but leave the way open for God.” You can either avenge yourself or let God be your avenger, but you cannot have it both ways. God wants to be your avenger and make your wrongs right.

And God doesn’t just stop at avenging. He goes on and blesses you in front of your enemies. Psalm 23:5 says, “God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.” Part of His vindication is promoting you so the opposition can see it.

Whenever we face unfair situations, instead of being discouraged, we should have the attitude, “They may be laughing now. It may not be fair. But I’m not the least bit worried. I know their injustice is preparing the way for God to promote me.”

If we can learn to stay on the high road no matter how great the opportunity to make somebody look bad or how much we want to pay them back, and learn to rule over our emotions and trust God to be our avenger, He will bring justice in our lives that will not only make us better off, but better off than we could ever have been on our own.”

Joel Osteen Sermon on 12/20/2009