Defeat The Hatred!

Thursday's Devotion (2-17-05)

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." 1 John 4:8 (KJV)

Some people may be confused about this scripture, "Well, I love my friends and family!" That might be one thing you're saying. Well, we all love those who love us. Loving those who love us is good, but it's not enough! We need to love everyone: Those we don't know, our enemies, our friends, our family, our co-workers and the list goes on. There is not one person in this world that you should hate. The Bible says, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" 1 John 4:20 (KJV). Some of us are lacking the love of God: Is it you, is it me, is it someone in your family? It's a scary thought to think about being stuck in the darkness of hatred, but now is the time to think about it! If we're to make it into God's Kingdom, then we need to love all. The question is, is there anyone in this world whom you may have a hatred for? Think about that for a moment. We'll get back to this at the end of the devotion.

How can we love people, that we don't know? To love is to do good to everyone. Here are some examples of being nice and loving people we don't know: Giving a poor man money, being polite, not causing harm to others, and any other good deed you can possibly do for someone. If you have ever ran a red light; or if you have stolen from someone then you are guilty of a hate crime against God! If you do harm to someone or if you put people in a situation where they can be hurt, then you are not loving them! Are you guilty? Don't worry, I think we're all guilty at one point or another. This is why Christ had to die for us. Christ has defeated this hatred, with His love! All we need to do is repent and ask for the love of God, to fill our hearts.

Back to the question, who do you have a hatred for? Also how does this hatred make you act? Does it make you call the person names, does it make you hurt them or try to, does it cause you to sin? Of course hatred is going to cause you to commit other sins, because hatred will cause you to break every law in the Bible! You need to overcome that hatred... today will be the beginning of doing so! Whoever it may be that you have hatred for, you need to go out and do something nice for them. If they're mean to you, you need to be nice anyway! Also think about reasons to justify your enemy. Does your enemy have problems at home? Are they jealous of you? The list of questions goes on and on. Justifying your enemy in your heart, will make it easier for you to forgive. Why should you justify them other than that? The answer is because God has justified all who have come to Him! You have wronged God and because you repented, you were justified! Maybe you're a racist person or you discriminate against a certain type of person. What you need to do in this situation is find a friend, the kind of person you discriminate against. Get to know them and once you do, most likely you'll see that you can't discriminate against an entire race or etc. Today you will make the first step of defeating hatred, the same way Christ defeated it... with love!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins and we forgive all those who've wronged us. Please fill our hearts with the love of God, through the Holy Ghost. Help us to overcome our hatred and to be holy Children of you. In Jesus, name. A-men!

God bless!

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