He who calls upon My Name will be saved from eternal separation. My blood spares the saint, but not all who call Me Lord speak truth. Grace is given to those with true desire for mercy, disturbed greatly by their sin, willing to abandon self for My Kingdom and way. To these who trust, drawn by the Father, these are to whom I share the Kingdom. The one who loves his darkness will know no such disdain of the dark, and true redemption will not be his. He will return only in remorse, and leave again for his mistress. Such a man is double-minded, unstable and without hope. His lord changes with the wind, and his temper is proof of the discord. He who truly lives, truly dies to self. Slow is the crucifixion, but the death of this nature is certain by it. Those hung were killed in hatred for their deeds, so too must you hate your sin. It shall die no other way. Holy do I call you, that your old master would be no more, and the deeds of the past would be covered by My blood, and your name would be written with those who believe that I AM, and do as I command.
Col 3:5-10 (ESV) – Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Rom 12:9 (ESV) – Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Prv 8:13 (ESV) – The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Ps 119:104 (ESV) – Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
Bottom Line:
I have someone in my extended family that, in my opinion, loves her anger. At times she may dislike it in herself, especially in hindsight, looking at the irreparable damage it has caused, but, for the most part, that anger is close at hand, like a ready right-hook to any threats to her very insecure world. And although it has produced much relational carnage over the years, I believe it remains as a friend because, in her constant justification, it has served her well. It’s shielded her from having to listen to the offensive opinion of others. It helped her manipulate those who feared her hair-trigger, and it gave her outlets to vent to her internal frustration with the many things she didn’t like about herself or situations in which she often found herself, by her own hand. It protected her from the truth when she didn’t want to hear it, as well as protected her from admitting fault in herself as she spewed accusations outward. And outside an act of incredible inner-healing by God Himself, I don’t believe she will ever change. Anger will always be her desired companion, regardless of the remorse or apologies that must follow, and her many promises to change.
Behavioral sin is like that. We may dislike it, but it’s our habit, and we can’t seem to shake it. There seems to be some part of workplace gossip that feeds us, or that shortness with others that helps to keep us in control of the conversation. We may tell those little lies to guard our reputation, drop language we know’s not right, so we fit-in or sound convincing. We don’t like that side of us, but for some reason, it’s hard to it put down for any length of time.
The Bible says, we are to hate our sin. It seems if we never get to the place were we actually despise our actions, the way God despises them, those things in us just linger on the sidelines, ready to jump into play as soon as we give them an opening.
Today we ask the Holy Spirit to shine a light on some of those not-so-Godly behaviors. After all, we can’t start disliking something we don’t even see in ourselves. We won’t pray against it, we won’t ask for accountability against it, we won’t memorize scriptures that would help us defeat it. And most importantly, we won’t hate it when it rears its ugly head.
You are a loved child of the most high God. Hate anything that blemishes that, as His Word works in you today.
