“Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Rom. 12:9). “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Ps. 97:10). “Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice…” (Amos 5:15). “Love your enemies… for he (our Father) is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35-36)
Lord Jesus, without your Word my imagination runs to places my feet should not take me. My heart conceives things, hat if birthed, would turn my hands into clenched fists and agents of hate.
Help me, Jesus, and others like me, who desperately need to “cling to what is good.” I have friends who heard the shots and smelled the smoke Monday in Covenant School. As a result, I have friends whose funerals will soon take place.
Jesus, thank you for the call to hate evil, for no one hates evil more than you do. And no one has done more to defeat evil. Only you can bring resolution to the angry, fear-full, grasping demand in our hearts… “Somebody has to pay for this!” Jesus, you have. You already have, Jesus.
The resolution we desperately crave won’t come through our revenge and retaliation, only through your resurrection and return. This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, and four distinct cries will beg for our attention afresh—perhaps with more compelling power than ever: “Hosanna!” … “Crucify him!” … “It is finished!” … “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said!”
Jesus, thank you, thank you, thank you. We cling to you as our only good, and adore you as our perfect Savior. Help us steward our anger, confusion, sadness, and fear. Help us hate only evil, by loving you more than we ever have. So Very Amen.
