The human heart wasn’t designed to maintain an internal environment of hate toward other humans. If your reaction to current events in politics, economics or in personal matters has left you with hate in your heart then it is time to repent. The good news is most repentance is much more pleasant than people think it will be. Seasoned Christians find themselves inescapably embracing a lifestyle of near daily repentance, even hourly. And they’re in good company too. Every major Bible character repented. They did so often. Even God Himself.
That’s right, depending on what translation you read it in, God either “relented” or He “repented” on multiple occasions. Just look at Genesis 6:6-7 in the KJV, ASV and more where He “repented” for making humans. Or look at 1 Samuel 15:11 where God repented for making Saul into a king. In Exodus 32:12-14 God’s anger for His enemies was so great He may have compromised His own character less His “friend” hadn’t talked Him out of it.
As a counselor, I’ve seen repentance do its work time and again, especially in the area of hatred. Even a hint of hate in our hearts is a heavy weight that I would equal to a sort of meth addiction of the soul. What meth does to the outside appearance, hate does to the inside environment. If we really look, the eyes always tell the story. Everyone can tell something is off, even you. Sometimes we all need a friend like God had in Moses to remind us, “Let it go. Protect your heart.”
We commonly seem to make too much of repentance so that we can’t bring ourselves to do it, and then too little of love so that we become weighed down and broken. Repentance is a big deal but only because of its effectiveness in healing us and either establishing or restoring God’s righteousness within us. Love is an even greater deal because it is the environment in which our hearts heal and thrive.
Are you fresh out of love? That’s not unusual but it’s almost always because we forgot where to get it. Our finite love-well understandably dries up in today’s fallen world. We never had enough of our own love, and without our access to Christ’s supply we never will have enough. The gift of Christ’s love toward us is the well He said wouldn’t run dry (John 4:14). If we learn to drink from it, we will have enough love for a lifestyle of repentance from our hates, fears and unforgiveness. We’ll see a way out of every snare, break free from every demonic stronghold, expose evil principalities and become a person of love, a new creation, an open heaven for all the earth.
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Read this article by Joshua Marcengill, originally posted on Charisma Magazine Online here.
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