Love, Not Hate

Happy weekend!

God wants us to love first. We were told to love first. We were made to love one another. To quote Tobymac, “We were made to love.”

No matter how troubling and difficult times are, we need to love. Love the people who disagree with us. Love the people who decide they are better than you, love the people of the past and love the people who will be on earth or in heaven in the future. Love anyone and everyone.

Love doesn’t mean you agree with someone, do you agree with your parents all the time? No,

but you still love them. Love is above disagreements. It is more important than any battle.

We are meant to spread love, so let’s stop the hate. I don’t want to gossip, even though I may not call it that, talking about people is just cruel. The only reasoning that I would consider worthwhile for talking about people is if you are asking about how to handle a situation and then you shouldn't be using names, or if you are praising them. If you have something bad to say, talk to them about it in the most polite way possible.

We don’t need to attack those who are doing things against the Bible. It is God’s decision whether these people are doing things against Him and God will be the one to handle it.

Don’t love the way the world loves, to the world love is something that gets you something in return. God did not choose to love us for something in return, He loves us because He wants to. I don’t want to love the way the world loves, I want to love the way God said to love.

1 Corinthians 13 explains in great detail what love is and how important love is. Matthew 5:43-48 reminds us that anyone can love those who are good to them, but it is difficult and at some points feels impossible to love those that attack us and hate us.

I’m living my life for God, which means I need to shove fear, hate, and judgement off His throne. I need to battle the thoughts that come to me about how awful someone is. God is the Judge, it has never worked out well when we try to take the power of being a judge into our own hands.

We are not meant to judge. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been falling into the habit of judging a lot. I’ve been judging people for the movements they follow and I’ve been getting frustrated with how people have been acting. I need to stop acting as the Judge. God has the role of being Judge. He is perfect. Let us all take the plank out of our own eyes, so that we can help one another.

I know that I fail to love a lot, but the goal is not to be perfect, but to continuously get better. If you worry too much about perfection, you might not take that step.

Let us be known by our love.

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Prayer:

Lord, thank You for every blessing that you bestow upon us. I'm truly grateful for how much You have given this world.

Please help us to love and end the hate. Please help me to love people I disagree with. Please help us to make a difference in the world. We are to be known by our love, so please help us to display it. Help us to display Your kind of love.

I'm so grateful for the words you give me. Lord, let every word I write be used for You and Your glory. Thank You for every second on this earth and every second in your presence. In Your name, Amen.