In Touch Daily Devotional 18th August 2023
In Touch Daily Devotional 18th August 2023 – Friday Daily Devotional Message Written Dr. Charles Stanley
TOPIC: A Bitter Poison
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SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 4:31-32
Picture a man hunched over a chemistry set, adding a pinch of this and a dash of that to the unpleasant green fluid before him. He is thinking of someone who harmed him, replaying all the perceived slights and hurts, and is concocting a poison to repay the offender.
His work finished, he breathes a sigh of relief and takes the beaker in his hands, marveling at what’s been created. “This will show him,” the man says, and then drinks the bitter brew himself.
That’s a surprising twist, to be sure. Yet there is a good chance you’ve essentially done this very thing at one time or another.
Bitterness is a poison that we prepare for someone else but then drink ourselves. It is something we often carefully nurture and grow over the years. If someone hurts us—whether intentionally or unintentionally—and we begin to fantasize of a thousand and one ways to get payback, all we are doing is destroying our own heart and mind. Thankfully, our faith presents a better way to live. Rather than nurture hate, we can “turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14).
Bible in One Year: Jeremiah 31-32
Thought: Has the pain of your past become a prison in your present?
In Touch Daily Devotional 18th August 2023. Charles Stanley is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta and founder of In Touch Ministries, both located in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Stanley’s heart’s desire is to get the gospel to “as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, as clearly as possible, as irresistibly as possible, through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.
