by Dona Hake
I was with my four year old Granddaughter yesterday. I was across the room and she said, “Grandma, what does it mean to hate?” I replied at first, “What did you ask?” Again she said, “Hate…what does that mean?” Honestly it is moments like these that are so precious that I wish I could freeze that moment in time. It was so precious to see her face and innocent eyes looking at me as she was trying to understand a word and what it meant. In that split second so many responses began to run through my mind but I knew I needed to scale this answer down to where her understanding of spiritual things are. I began to share with her that we never hate people that do bad but rather hate their actions and sin. I also shared with her that we need to understand that we are to hate the devil for he always does evil things to try to lie and hurt us.
Today I am feeling to share with you that God indeed desires that there are things that we need to hate passionately. He wants us to know Him so well that we know exactly what He detests and abhors. He desires that we hate what He hates and love what He loves. To hate something is to dislike intensely or passionately or to feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward a particular thing.
Psalm 97:10-11-Amplified
“You who love the Lord, hate evil;He protects the souls of His godly ones believers,He rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown like seed for the righteous and illuminates their path,And irrepressible joy is spread for the upright in heart who delight in His favor and protection.”
The more we are in fellowship with God by prayer and the reading of His Word, the more we will immediately identify what the Lord hates. We must keep our hearts guarded and never hate people that do evil acts. We love the person yet hate the evil deed. The Lord is able to help us do this. This scripture tells us that His light is sown like a seed for us, and it WILL illuminate our path. That Light will correctly define for us the things that we need to reject that are evil and poisonous to our souls. Today let us love like God yet hate those things that He hates. God desires that we live uncompromisingly as we serve Him in faith and in truth. that He will be glorified in our life.
Proverbs 8:13 The Living Bible
“If anyone respects and fears God, he will hate evil. For wisdom hates pride, arrogance, corruption, and deceit of every kind.”