Bible Reading: Daniel 1-2; 1 John 2.
Memory Verse: “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.” 1 John 2:9 (KJV).
Hate is defined as intense hostility and aversion deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury. A man had a wife and a daughter. Later the wife died and the man decided not to remarry but to nurture their only daughter to maturity. This, he did very well and the daughter became a beautiful lady. Then it was time to marry and the father had to call the intending husband and told him the history of the daughter and begged him never to maltreat her as she was the only person he had. The intending husband made a promise and they later got married. In the course of the marriage, the husband fought with the lady and got to a point that he threatened to kill her but she managed to escape and ran to her father.
The father was so displeased with the son-in-law and hated him so much that he made up his mind not to forgive him. Then he had a strange sickness and he was bloating up and no medication was able to cure him. Finally, he went to a man of God for prayers and he was told to forgive someone in his life that he hated so much and made up his mind not to forgive. Immediately the son-in-law came to his mind and after much counseling, he made up his mind to forgive him. He went to the son-in-law’s house to tell him he had forgiven him. But as he saw his father-in-law coming, he quickly locked his doors, being afraid of the father-in-law’s anger. But after some persuasion, he opened the door and the man held his son in law and hugged him. Both of them wept while holding on to each other and suddenly, the man’s ring fell down! A ring that he could not remove for months because of his bloated body thus signifying his cure!
Hatred breeds bitterness and often inhibits blessing including healing as in this case. No wonder the Bible says, in 1 John 2:9 (KJV), “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.” And your brother is any neighbour of yours and not necessarily your biological brother. When you hate someone, you do things that will hurt that person even if such actions are absurd because you are blinded by your bitterness. 1 John 2:11 (KJV) reiterates this, “But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.”
That is why King Saul did very absurd things by leaving his kingdom to sleep in a cave just to get David and kill him (1 Samuel 24:2-4). Whoever that is a true disciple of Christ will not harbour hate against anyone because he will be exhibiting love as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Do you have one or more people you hate now? It’s time you let the light of God shine into your life and pray for such people and forgive them whatever they might have done to you and ask God to let you love them. Leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19).
Prayer: Father, let the light of your love shine through me and purge me of any hate that may be hidden in my heart in Jesus mighty name.
Bro. Biodun Oyapero