Mon.’s Devo - Blessings Instead of Curses

Read Ro. 12:14 Bless those that persecute you; don’t curse them. In my daily reading, I read today in Esther. Haman had a grudge against Mortecai since he wouldn’t bow down to him, so Haman decided to kill all of Mortecai’s people, the Jews, to get back at him. Haman went before the king and told the king that there were these people didn’t obey his rules and it would be his best interest to annihilate them. The king agreed without doing any research on his own to see if it was even true. They drew lots to figure out the yearly calendar and it fell on the last month of the year to kill all the Jews. It says that when this edict went out and was read to the people that the whole city of Susa was bewildered. This was a totally unexpected blow. I can’t imagine finding out that my country was going to kill me and my family in 12 months. They had 12 months to think about it and let fear and every other emotion take them over. I’m sure that would be a time when it would be hard to bless the king and not curse him. We live in a time when, as Christians it is hard not to want to curse our political leaders instead of blessing them. I always go back to David who was being hunted down by Saul and given several opportunities to kill him and refused. He always referred to Saul as “God’s anointed.” And he was. So are our leaders. The Bible says that no leader is placed there except by God. A leader is chosen by God and reflects the people’s walk with Him. A nation gets the leader it deserves. We need to learn to find a way to bless our leaders instead of cursing them. If we can’t bless them, then we can pray for them. It all goes back to 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Lord, help us to bless our enemies and those that persecute us, and especially our leaders that you would heal us and our land.