How the devil does a double whammy

A double whammy is a colloquial way of describing two unfortunate events that happen either together or one after the other. The devil does this often to people. Another way of describing it is that he kills two birds with one stone. What do we mean?

The devil gets another person to do us some harm. That is the first wham! The second comes when we get upset with that person and our relationship gets spoilt! Many times people miss to notice the second wham because they are so focused on the first one. They think of how bad, unreasonable, unfair and unexpected it was, and continues to judge the person who did this to them. They toy with ideas of revenge, tit for tat, telling other people about it, etc. But during the whole time when they are occupied with this other person and what he has done, they are even totally unaware how the devil has caught them in a trap of unforgiveness! Even if sometimes they notice how worked up they are towards the other person, they quickly console themselves saying that it is what the other person has brought about!

If someone has done harm to us, does that justify our hatred towards them? It certainly does not, especially if we know that God has had to forgive us the sins that we have done to Him and to the others. God forgave us not because we did some penance or earned it, but as a free gift of His mercy which we do not deserve! If we want our forgiveness on the basis of His grace, we cannot withhold forgiveness from anyone else saying they do not deserve it! Remember how we pray, "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Mt.6:12).

Some people carelessly tell us to forgive and forget! Actually it is impossible to forget what has happened, and the more we try, the stronger the memory becomes. But we can forgive, and leave it behind us, and refuse to think over it again and again as a cow chews the cud. The way to get our emotions to slowly cool down is to avoid thinking about it. If we wait for the emotions to die down before we forgive, or as a sign of forgiveness, it may never happen.

Sometimes it helps us to realise that when we forgive someone, he will still remain accountable to God. We are only doing our part to cleanse ourselves of bitterness, unforgiving attitudes, etc.

We can ask God to help us if we find it difficult to forgive someone in some specially difficult situations. But forgive them, we must. If we refuse to forgive them, we nullify the ground on which God could forgive us (vv.14,15). This is what can happen if we focus on the hurt we have received from someone else, and forget to see the precarious situation we are moving into ourselves! If you think about it, you may be able to recognise many people in our acquaintance who have not bothered to forgive others, and perhaps you yourself are in that situation. Don't let the devil take advantage of you (2Co.2:10,11). He is just waiting to catch us in situations like this, to enslave us.