Daily Devotional For Thursday, July 2, 2026
Good morning and welcome to our daily devotional for today. I am using the One Year Chronological Bible readings as to where I pull our daily devotionals. Today, we are in the Book of Proverbs — specifically Proverbs 25:21-22:
“If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink. (22) You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads, and the LORD will reward you” (NLT).
When we read this proverb, we can be shocked by its command. Instead of seeking revenge against someone who has hurt us, we are commanded to seek their good. Rejoicing to do something good for someone who hurts us, is typically not our first thought. Usually revenge is. I think of the Apostle Paul, who refers to this Proverbs in Romans 12:9-21. We are not to let evil conquer us, but we conquer evil by doing good to those who do evil to us. Such a mindset is not in our culture. We are survivalists and usually at all costs.
We all battle the disease of me. This is why when someone harms us, we think of ourselves first. And if someone harms or hurts someone we love, we want to be the one who vindicates justice as judge, jury and executioner. But God says that justice is never achieved through revenge, but through grace. If you doubt this, then just look at all that was done to Jesus on just Good Friday alone. He could have called legions of angels to protect Him, stop everything and to slaughter everyone involved. Yet, from the cross He said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Jesus modeled what He taught us to do in Matthew 5:43-48. Notice Jesus said we are to love our enemies, pray for our enemies, do good to those who hurt us and find a way to bless them. This goes along with our passage from Proverbs today. “To heap hot coals of shame” on someone’s head is a way of saying that we take from the person who hurt us their hurt and our Christlife response burns their heart with shame and guilt. In other words, a change of heart in the one who hurt us happens. Why? This is not the reaction they were expecting and that is why it is so shocking and burns emotionally, relationally and spiritually.
There is a spiritual point to Proverbs 25:21. Hunger can refer to spiritual hunger and thirst can refer to a spiritual thirst. Their attack on us is less personal and more spiritual even though it seems personal. We have to make sure we do not make it personal in terms of retaliation. We can make it personal in terms of extending grace to that person in hopes our response will bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hunger and thirst in the Bible are often used as metaphors to express how we often try everything and everyone else to quench these spiritual desires first before we go to God. So, the Lord is encouraging us to be the catalyst for them going to the Lord sooner, not later or not at all. Our response should not be spitefulness, but that person’s salvation. While we may initially hunger and thirst for revenge, we must override that with a hunger and thirst for that person’s soul. We need to make sure we “heap the right hot coals,” not the wrong ones. If we respond any other way, we are the ones who get burned emotionally, relationally and spiritually.
Reflection Assignment: Who is it that has hurt you and you have been keeping in your memory and nursing in your heart a record of the wrong they did to you? How might you now decide to “heap hot coals” on them as Jesus described in Matthew 5:43-48?
Scripture To Meditate On: Romans 12:19, “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, ‘I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I keep a record of wrong that others do to me. I can remember with vivid detail what they did. I do not want to be a slave to my anger, but a salve to their spiritual hunger and thirst. They need to see You in me, not my anger, bitterness, or resentment. Please help me to model grace and forgiveness to them as You do to me every day. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly