December 5, 2025 Devo

Some people are not worthy of the amount of thought we give them.  That’s what hit me when I read our verse for today.  Think about it.  Somebody says something ugly to you or does something malicious.  And they’re KNOWN for doing such things.  Most of us, if we’re striving to be Christ-followers, try not to retaliate.  We bite our tongue.  We walk away.  We don’t return evil for evil.  All good.  But what about our MINDS?  How much space and energy do we give them there?  
Many of us will take that incident and play it over and over and over.  We’ll start creating stories in our minds about why they said such a thing or create reasons for why they would do such a thing.  We take an ugly or hurtful situation and make it even worse in our imaginations by adding all kinds of details that we can’t possibly know are true.  Then, we will stoke the fires even more by telling other people about it.  And we don’t even realize we’re torturing our minds, our hearts, and our emotions by doing so.
Stop it.  You are not healing your heart by giving those wrongs so much attention.  You are not moving toward the future by reliving the past.  It’s one thing if you need to process the pain to find help and healing on how to handle it.  It’s another thing to let the situation wallow around in your brain, consuming all your mental and emotional strength and energy.  LET IT GO.  Yes, I know it wasn’t right. But LET IT GO.  Yes, I know you deserve to be treated better.  But LET IT GO.  Why give a 30-second or even a 5-minute wound a lifespan of days, weeks, or months by keeping it alive in your mind?  Every time you replay it, you wound yourself again.  Every second you spend re-igniting your anger over it steals the joy you could be experiencing in that moment.  Do you really want to get to the end of your day and know that you’ve given the BEST of who you are to the WORST of who you encountered that day?  I’m going to say it again, and this time I want you to say it out loud.  “Some people are not worthy of the amount of thought we give them.”  
Please hear my heart with this.  I’m not talking about ignoring problems or pain with your family or friends.  I’m not saying that we don’t need to work with people with whom we have differences.  What I AM saying is that some people are just critical, mean, and toxic.  They are people with whom you can’t work things out because they don’t want to work things out.  They just like to say and do ugly things.  The psalmist knew who those people were and knew they would be waiting on him.  But he decided they weren’t worth worrying about.  Instead of becoming fearful or anxious or becoming ugly like them, he decided he’d focus his mind on the promises of God.  I think that sounds like good advice for all of us.  Instead of giving those kinds of people a piece of your mind, why not let God give your mind some peace?  That’s God’s Word for you today.