How Many Times Have You Heard It?

When a loved one hurts our feelings we hate them for their cruelty. Let's be honest, we do! Most of our life we have heard it said:

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good".
 (Romans 12:21)

Most Christians would give a comeback like "forgive them". Nice, but when the hate crops back up in the near future we see that we have not forgiven them. When someone hurts us it's so difficult to forgive because we love ourselves too much. If they would come to us and say they are sorry it would be so easy to forgive, but in my life, this has been rare. So, how do we overcome a hurt with good?

Probably each Christian would answer differently, but it has been my experience to completely forgive through the Holy Spirit when I examine the other person and what is going on in their life. When I put myself in their shoes, as the old adage goes, then I am overcome with sympathy for that person which leads me to pray for their situation. I overcome evil by praying for them and the hurts that they are going through.