Life is too short to
waste time hating anyone.
I wrote about this a couple of months ago but I wanted to
repeat some things.
WHY? Because we are apt to “give something to God” and then
turn around and pick it back up…
Let me ask you to try something.
IF you really want to hurt the person that hurt you, grab a
big box of rat poison and swallow it with a big glass of water. Now, did that
person you hate die? No? Funny, shouldn’t that have worked?
Now – PLEASE DO NOT TRY THAT AT HOME, or anywhere else for
that matter. But in a real sense that is what we do when we harbor hate for
anyone. We hold a deep bitterness that poisons only the one holding on to it.
And I would be willing to bet that the other person either doesn’t remember it
or doesn’t care, either way it certainly isn’t bothering them. They are not the
one losing sleep planning that wickedly wonderful revenge.
They are not the one
wasting time trying to phrase that one line quip that stabs the others heart. How
much time of your life will you waste in making those plans, licking your wound,
seething over that awful insult? I am not saying that what they person did to
you wasn’t something bad. I am not saying that it didn’t cut deeply. What I am
saying is that lifting the weight of unforgiveness does not strengthen you it
weakens you. Carrying around hatred can completely sap your strength. Its like
walking around all day carrying a 100 hundred pound of sand, all day every day.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:43-48
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your
neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in
heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain
on the righteous and the unrighteous. ...”
Any lasting hatred kills the spirit, clouds the judgement
and creates ugly scars. Jesus said “love your enemies” - it frees your spirit – and in it you begin
to look like your Father in heaven. And
I like the next part of that scripture (I will paraphrase and through in a
little supposition) – because life happens to everybody, its likely just like
you have been hurt you might hurt someone else, even the righteous run the risk
of causing someone pain.
Do you really think your enemy cares if you hate them?
No, says I. They do not care at all, in fact they probably take great joy in
it. BUT when you love in such a way that you can pray for them (and no, not pray
for them to die a horrible death that’s missing the point) and when that very same
person sees that they have not been allowed to take up space in your head…well
they just might give up.
Lets add to that something else Jesus said - Matthew 6:15 – “But
if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your
transgressions.” Yeah, let that sink in for a minute… Not a pretty thought is
it? So in hating we harbor our own unforgiveness.
I know it is not always easy, well, maybe never easy. But
the benefits so outweigh the difficulty we would be foolish not to make the
effort. If you find it is extremely difficult, ask God’s Spirit to help you,
because He will.
SO
Take a moment. Think about that person or persons that you “hate.”
Think about that person that hurt you. NOW – don’t think about the revenge but
think of the freedom and forgiveness. From there simply bow your heart and ask
God to help you forgive that person and ask Him to bleed off the hate from your
spirit. Hand God the hate you have been carrying and walk away from it. STOP…
no don’t go back and pick it up again, are you crazy…didn’t you just give it up…
why do you want to keep going back to get it… Give it to God, walk away from it, don’t look back at it. There,
now doesn’t that feel better. Now you get on with life. You can get on with
enjoying the people around you…because
Life is too short to
waste time hating anyone.
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