The Dying Soul
Saturday's Devotion (2-23-08)
"And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart." Zechariah 7:10 (KJV)
I want to focus on the part of this verse about imagining evil against your brother. If you imagine evil against someone else then in the sight of God it's the same as if you had really done the evil you imagined. If you have such a hatred for someone that you want them dead, then you've already in your heart committed murder against them. You must repent of your wicked thoughts. People think it's harmless because they're not actually doing it they're just thinking it, but it's harming them.
If you hold hatred and bitterness in your heart then you are not perfected in the love of God, and you lack His peace in your life. Living with hatred and bitterness is like living with cancer or AIDS or any other deadly disease... Except it's a death sentence for your soul and not necessarily your body (Unless you act on your hatred.) You have to let it go, you have to forgive others. I'm not going to pretend to be innocent, I've held such hatred in my heart countless times. It takes a lot for me to get to that point now since accepting Christ. Before I accepted Christ there was a lot of people that I absolutely hated. God has really softened my heart and I can say that I don't hate anyone anymore. Times come when I get really angry, but through the power of Christ I can get over it easier. I have to talk it out with God, family, and other believers before I can put it aside at times and move on... but the important thing is that I get over it, and forgive and move forward. God forgives me for my wicked thoughts because I turned away from them and asked for forgiveness. If you harbor the evil thoughts and keep dwelling on them and enjoy them and don't want to change... then you have a problem. Your problem is that you're consumed by hatred, it consumes every aspect of your life and for you there is no peace. Guess what? There won't be any peace in your life until you hand that hatred over to God and learn to love.
I'm always shocked when I hear people tell me that the Bible is hate literature. You know what that tells me? It tells me they're highly confused and they either have never read or they never understood the Bible. If you study and FOLLOW the Bible you should be leading a life of love. Your heart should be filled with love and compassion for your fellow man or woman. If anyone hates then the Bible is not to blame, it's the person to blame. The Bible is not hate literature. The Bible is here to lead us to happiness, it's instructions on how we should live in order to have joy and peace with God. It's instructions are meant to help us change in order to have salvation, it's not here to condemn us.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins as we forgive all those who've sinned against us. Help us to love one another and not to hate or to have evil imaginations. May our thoughts be of peace and love towards one another and towards you. In Jesus name. A-men!
God bless!