The Cure For Hateful People

Saturday's Devotion (3-18-06)

"See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men." 1 Thessalonians 5:15 (KJV)

You know people believe in the old saying, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." In other words they believe that "revenge is sweet." Many people that call themselves Christians believe in revenge too. People believe that the only way to settle something is by getting "even." Let me tell you something: If you "get revenge," you won't get even. If you try to get revenge then you let your enemies win over you. Yesterday, I had a refresher course of sorts. That course taught me that the bad things that happen to me that are caused by people, they aren't really caused by people. They are caused by Satan in order to cause me to sin or lose faith in God. Satan throws curve balls at us, and we have to be ready to hit a home run by keeping our faith, and not losing our cool or getting upset. If we lose our faith or our cool, then we lose a battle to enemy. The war is won, but there are still battles in life to be won or lost. Believe it or not holding grudges and seeking revenge will ultimately cause us to lose those battles.

What do we do? If your neighbor let you starve when you were hungry, then when your neighbor is hungry or when they need anything, give them what they need. What justice is in that, right? Well, it's not our job to bring justice. That's God's job, but if you listen to this advice then justice will be brought! If you help those who would not help you, then you are getting into their conscience, "Why would this person do that for me? I didn't help them when they needed it!" Not only do you get justice, but at same time you get to be a light for Jesus! I sure would like to put this method to work on some people I used to know. I'd like to walk up to them and say, "God bless you," right after I give them something they really need. Can you imagine if someone tried to steal your car, and you caught them... But instead of calling the police you just give them the car, or the money to buy their own? Seems silly, but it's really not silly at all. Think about it, people who would do cruel things to others, they don't need cruel treatment done to them. No, these people need love. Love is a powerful tool that can convert soul, heart, and mind. I can testify of that first hand. I found love in Jesus Christ, and the love of my wife, and seemingly all the hate inside of me went away. If you fight hate with hate, then you just create more hate. If you fight hate with love then hate never stands a chance! There is a cure for the disease of hate that your dads, mothers, sisters, brothers, neighbors, friends, and even enemies have. That cure is love! I hope that some people came here and read the title, "Yeah, there's a cure! Hit them with a baseball bat! Knock their teeth out!" Because those are the people that I want to read this. You're not making the world a better place by attacking evil with evil, you are just continuing this nasty cycle. There are even people who murder the prejudice people of the world. If you're white and you kill a black man for being prejudice or vice versa, you don't solve the problem of racism... You just created about a thousand more racists. In other words, you make the hate disease stronger! If you love instead of hate, then you can teach the racist person that there are wonderful people of every nationality, etc.

Challenge: The challenge is going to sound very hard for some, but if you complete it you will be glad you did! If you have an enemy, then do something nice for them today.

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. Help us to love everyone, and to do good to all even those who don't do good to us. In Jesus name. A-men!

God bless!

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