“See to it that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.”  

1 Thess 5:15

Good Father,

Not only are you “abundantly good,” 

you sent your Son to defeat evil, 

in our hearts, and in this world. 

We know our hearts are “deceitful” 

and “desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9), 

and we know we are blind to our own potential 

to harm others and to rebel against you. 

Show us, we pray, by your Spirit, 

the ways we harbor evil, 

the ways we seek revenge 

when someone has done us evil. 

Destroy every crack and crevice 

of bitterness or resentment 

we might harbor. 

Draw us to “seek to do good”— 

to “one another” and to “everyone,” 

not just to the people 

who have been nice to us, 

the people we agree with on all the hot-button issues, 

or the people who look, talk, and act like us. 

In Jesus’ kind name. Amen. 

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28.