"Don't seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people. "Love your neighbor as yourself. I am God." (Leviticus 19:18 )
Have you ever noticed how the media doesn't make it their headlines when a person reacts in love rather than revenge? I keep noticing the headlines regarding Lady Gaga not taking the opportunity to make a political statement, but instead she entertained during the halftime show for the Super Bowl.
Why wouldn't she entertain. That is what she is. An entertainer.
So many today are all about revenge. getting what is "mine". going along with the crowd and not having a clue what they are "going along with". On both sides of the coin. Conservative and Liberal. Christian and nonChristian..
When I think of someone, aside from our Christ, who loved deeply your neighbor as yourself, Mother Teresa always comes to mind. She loved. She loved deeply. And she used her platform to spread the gift of Love, when she easily could have used it for another agenda.
I struggle with this.
A lot.
To Love this way.
I try to justify my feelings. The more I pray for God to help me Love as He does, the more of His Word He sends to me - showing that my feelings of revenge, or the grudge, are not justified. That they are a sin. That they are only serving to create bitterness, anger.
And apathy.
Apathy -Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference. Lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness.
This is totally against God's Word, His way - it isn't Love.
Yes, He instructs us to "not cast pearls before swine". He does say at a certain point to "shake the dust from our feet", but doesn't say to stop loving others. To stop praying for them. To seek revenge. I'm all about the shaking and not casting. Not one who enjoys confrontation, it is sometimes easy to walk away and not look back.
To develop apathy.
It's The Loving and praying for a person who has rejected us, caused harm to us, who doesn't love us or to those we love that is hard . To ask God to bless them as He has each one of us . It is a fight thinking after being the type of person they are, we don't want them to have the blessings we do from knowing Him. It can get to the point where apathy seeps in and we don't want to share Him with them.
How selfish revenge and carrying a grudge can make us. How it comes between us and Him.
I am so thankful that The Holy Spirit "moans and groans" for His Children. I am so thankful our ABBA knows each one of our hearts better than we do. I am so thankful He knows, even when we fail, we are striving to not have a heart of apathy.
The wall of apathy creates a hardened heart towards a person. We have our shield up, standing behind a wall we have created so as not to be vulnerable towards their attacks.
We are not trusting in our God to protect and lift us up.
And we are not trusting Him and His promises.
How like the Israelites on their journey we become. So often, we whine, complain, cry out in fear, want to go back to our "comfort zone". So often, we do not trust in His way, His time, His Word.
This whole passage today (Lev 17:1-19:37) are laws He created to prevent us from self-destructing. Which sadly is what we are often about. Look at our world today - by not living in His way, we are in such a circus of destruction. The economy, the environment, and most of all the state of our minds, bodies, emotions. There is so much evil living boldly in the world.
Because so many have chosen to not live by His Word - His laws.
How much we need to turn from apathy towards not only those who have hurt us, but to all of those who are lost in this world.
Allowing Him to use each of us to Love as He Loves.
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