“Let those who love the LORD hate evil” (Psalm 97:10).

Let those who love…hate.

Hmmm.

We don’t often think of these two things – love and hate – in the same sentence. For us, we think love excludes hate. We often think that when one loves there is no room for hate. But unless love hates, it cannot be love.

Loving God does not mean loving everything. Loving God means to hate everything that is not God. Loving God means to hate the opposite of who God is. Loving God must mean hating evil because God hates evil.

It is impossible to love God and love evil.

The more we love God, the more we hate evil. A friend of God becomes the enemy of evil.

I pray that we become a people who love the LORD more and more by hating evil in us and in our world more and more.

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

A broken spirit…
A broken and contrite heart…

Why a broken spirit? Why a broken and contrite heart? Why is it that a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart is a sacrifice God will not despise?

Why not a joyful heart?

That’s a good question.

Look at it from the opposite position.

• A broken spirit – A proud spirit
• A broken and contrite heart – A proud and unrepentant/defiant heart

Now you see why?

The pathway to joy begins with confession and repentance. It is when we see sin as God sees it and turn from our wicked ways that a life of forgiveness and joy is possible.

• A proud spirit, a proud and defiant heart will never confess.
• A proud spirit, a proud and unrepentant heart will never turn from their wicked ways.

Listen to what God has to say about a pride and a defiant heart.

• “I hate pride and arrogance” – Proverbs 8:13
• “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” – James 4:6
• “The LORD detests all the proud of heart” – Proverbs 16:5
• “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” – Proverbs 16:18

The pathway to joy begins with confession and repentance. God is a God who is for-giving.

God loves you. May we offer to God a broken and contrite heart that God may forgive and heal our hearts.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is best known for his fight for justice and civil rights for all people. But what drove Dr. King to fight for justice was his love for all people.

Dr. King reminds us, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

In this season of the global covid pandemic, economic turmoil, political unrest, and our continued fight for justice and for racial equality, don’t forget the engine that drives our calling for change. Love – love for all people.

• Hate can’t change people; only love can do that.
• Anger can’t change people; only love can do that.
• Frustration can’t change people; only love can do that.

Let love shine Lakewood. When love shines, justice follows.