To Hate or to Love

For Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Proverbs 10:12

Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offenses.

Let me ask you today. In the next 24 hours, will you commit to prayer that your words and actions will promote peace? There is a likely chance that someone will say or do something offensive, either to you or in your company. Will you cover over the offense? There will be opportunity for you to stir up strife through a careless remark. Most likely you will stir up trouble in someone's spirit if you do not consciously pray for Christ's love to work in you. We are sinners. Without the Spirit's work in us, we will sin like a car out of alignment that will veer from the road if our hands are removed from the steering wheel.

Don't read this proverb thinking that you do not hate anyone, thus you are not guilty of stirring up strife. If by love you are not covering offenses made against you, you are opening yourself up to stir up strife. There is a good chance that at work, school, the store, the neighborhood, and the home there is opportunity to stir up trouble or further trouble by making the careless remark or response to someone else's stirring the pot. The truth of the matter is that our words and actions reveal either hatred or love. There is no inbetween. To be indifferent to another person is to hate. To show the smallest of concern is to love. Every person we meet today is an opportunity to hate or to love. Which will it be for you?