A Prayer About the Stewardship of Hatred
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 1 John 3:14-15
Heavenly Father, there are a lot of things I rather casually express hatred for. I hate limpy canned asparagus. I hate bumper-to-bumper traffic going in my direction. I hate high humidity when I want to jog. I hate pulling out a nearly empty milk carton from the refrigerator when I’m primed for a big bowl of cereal. I hate loud talking in a quiet restaurant when I’m already peopled-out. I hate having to engage in deep conversation after 9:00 pm.
But this portion of your Word puts all of my hating into perspective. I’m sobered by the warning concerning the hatred of people-especially hating my brothers and sisters in Christ. Holy Spirit, I ask you to examine my heart and quicken my memory. Who are the people towards whom I having feelings of hatred? Though I may’ve never spoken the violent words, “I hate you!”, to their face, nevertheless I’ve committed murder in my heart. I’ve relished their reversals, dreamed of their demise, longed for their languishing…
Certainly, Father, most of us experience great disappointments and very painful betrayals in life, even by the hands of those with whom we share life in Christ. And some of us have been egregiously violated and seriously abused-too often by those we were trained to trust. But when our real hurt grows to retaliatory anger, and our anger morphs into spiteful hatred… arrest our hearts, Lord. Let us see, let me see the ways I become the very thing I hate. Bring us, bring me back to gospel-sanity, sooner rather than later.
How we need the power of the gospel to remember that vengeance belongs to you, not to us, Father. Even as you are a God of mercy, you are also a God of justice. We can trust you for both. You do all things well… in your timing… for your glory and for our good.
Receive our praise, oh God, for bringing us from death to life in Jesus. Receive our praise, Lord Jesus, for becoming the hater and the hated on the cross… for us, for me. May your great and grace-full love move me to hate evil and to hate my sin more than I hate anything or anyone else in the world. Receive our praise, Holy Spirit, for constantly gossiping the gospel to our hearts. So very Amen, I pray, in the holy and compassionate name of our Triune God.
