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I come to you with a heavy heart. Even as I write this post, rioting, destruction, protesting, and hate is brooding across the country. People are angry. In the midst of all this anxiety and frustration, there is still a God who hears our hearts. I do not know the situation of every human on this earth, but God does. However, I do know how anger seeps into someone's heart and takes over. I do know how hate controls the human mind and provokes them to evil deeds. There is only one individual who is responsible for all of this, and that is satan.
He is the father of lies. He is the father of deceit and anger. A father of hatred and malice. He delights when we hurt one another. He smiles when a helpless life gets lost. I will not dumb satan down to make him seem like a harmless little angel on your shoulder that you can flick off. He is warring against each and every human soul on this planet. And he wants to win.
The spiritual battle is real. Satan is real. Whether or not you want to admit it, there is deep, dark evil in this world. These are trying times.
(Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. Please read the full chapter for context.)
John 8:44 "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
1 Peter 5:8 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
John 10:10 "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
Do you feel the darkness and heaviness from those passages. Satan flourishes in fear, anger, hopelessness, lies, and anything evil. He is evil itself. He has blinded the lost to the truth. And only when that light is brought to them do they see it.
2 Corinthians 4:5-10 " For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body."
Here is where I see us getting so much wrong. This power is of God, because loving is not easy. Loving our neighbor is hard. Loving the bully is hard. Loving the murderer is hard. But our God is the God who is over ALL things! Even the hard things!
As Christians, we are called to be spotless before the world so that they may know who Christ is. How can this show when we are angry and frustrated? The world will know we are Christians by our love.
John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
So, although satan bombards our minds with lies, anger, hopelessness, and frustration. We will not give in! For our King is greater than all of this. He is a God who can give us true peace, when our eyes are fixed on Him. He is the Father of love and hope! Let us learn to love one another as He loved us and died for us. I will leave you with the following verses.
Ephesians 5:1-21 commands,
"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."
I would like to challenge you to prayerfully consider those verses. What should our stance be on all of these political issues? If our primary purpose is to glorify God, how do we demonstrate Christ to others?
Therefore, even when the world is acting crazy, our confidence can be in our King. He will give us His Spirit to love, only when we choose to look to Him.
"It is not the color of our skin. It is the color of our heart." -Momma J.
That is what truly matters in the midst of all of this. Choose to redeem the times. Choose to love. Choose to be a peacemaker. Choose to have hope. The issue of our hearts is the ultimate change that needs to occur. Are we seeking to build up the kingdom of heaven? Or are we causing separation and destruction? For even in the darkest nights, the sun still rises the next morning.
Remember whose you are, love! You are Gods child!
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