Don’t Let
HATE
Come Near You

What is HATE? Webster defines the root of hate this way:

(An) intense hostility and aversion deriving from fear, anger, or a sense of injury, extreme dislike, disgust or loathing.

It’s heart breaking to see all the hatred between people, not only in our own country and in this world, but sadly in our own homes as well as our personal and business relationships. We see it daily on social media, in the news down-grading and dividing our political parties, and in our culture and society.

But my friend, hating others is an easy way out as nothing but a self-defense mechanism when things don’t go the way we think or feel. That’s when PRIDE takes over and we want to play the blame game and start acting out behaviors determined to make us the “winner.” That is, we embrace hate as a way to protect our self-esteem or to defend our interests or beliefs.

People often hate what they don’t understand and reject those who think or look differently as unevolved or enlightened out of their self-pride and arrogance, or because of what others may say about them.

But given all this, why aren’t more and more Christians using their voices to erase hate with Christ’s love? Jesus said it best of what we do not have to fear:

“If a man says I love God, but hates another Christian,
that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see,
how can we love God, whom we have not seen?
And God himself has commanded that we must love not only him,
our Christian brothers and sisters, too.”
John 4:20-21

Is Jesus only talking to us about God’s command to love only Christians? No...He is also speaking to us ALL to End Hate PERIOD! and to embrace all people with the love of God.

Martin Luther King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. This sounds hard for many people to digest, but our true essence as human beings, is to be and do good.”

Christ wasn’t sacrificed on the cross so that people would stop hating one another, his sacrifice made a way for believers to be forgiven when we do hate one another. His love for His children overcomes all things and the Holy Spirit has the power to shine from us and push back the darkness in our world. There is nothing to fear. All we need to do is love like Christ loves.

So where does this take us? Well, if you hold any hatred in your heart towards someone, ask God to help you release it. If someone attacks you, avoid getting into a useless battle, because people are intolerant and expect you to behave the same way. God is calling all of us to learn practice Christ Like behavior when hate would seem natural. See others through the eyes of Christ and you can be sure that hate will never come near you.

God Bless Your Day
Jesus Loves You

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