February 14, 2020

Look to Your Hearts

And everyone will hate you because you are my followers. – Luke 21:17

Everyone likes to be liked. Everyone wants to be accepted and valued. I am no exception. But what happens when God calls you to something that will likely turn your world upside down and cause people to hate you? Eventually, you do it anyway.

For a long time I have felt torn by the increasing chasm between the views loudly expressed by “Christians” and what the Bible actually says. We have become a society good at choosing parts and pieces of Scripture to “prove” our own way of thinking. We use God’s Word to slay others and do it “in the name of Jesus.” In so doing, we miss the point. We miss His point.

Love others. Love your enemies. Love foreigners. Love. Again and again we are told to love people. Again and again we see Jesus helping others without bothering to inquire if they deserve it. Because, honestly, none of us deserve His help. None of us deserve grace and mercy. His gives it freely anyway.

We are just so hard-hearted. We pray for our will to be done, refusing to consider that maybe it is us who have gotten it all wrong. We are so busy being “right” that we fail to look beyond ourselves to actually hear God’s voice.

God’s Word covers so much more than abortion and homosexuality but some groups would have us believe that those are the only two issues that matter. We don’t want to hear about the poor. That might cost us money. We don’t want to read about welcoming foreigners because we don’t want to be around people who aren’t exactly like us.

We hold in high esteem those who are filled with greed, reckless ambition, and selfish motives. We call them successful. We fill our hearts with worthless possessions that make us feel good about ourselves. And we cling to what we claim as ours, refusing to acknowledge God’s ownership over it all.

The truth of our lives isn’t pretty. We are guilty and obstinate in our harsh words and finger pointing. Look in the mirror, oh Pharisees. See yourselves clearly. Your loud proclamations of faith mean nothing when your hearts are so clearly filled with selfishness and evil.