Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Love And Hate And War
It seems these days when listening to the news that one cannot not go long without hearing about conflict in the world. The war far away. Some country accused of developing nuclear weapons. That country denying it. It would be easy to conclude that there is too much hate and not enough love and caring for our fellow man. And we may be right. But God gave us these emotions. Why? It is easy to understand why He would give us the emotion of love, but why hate? As it turns out, there is at least one answer for this from the scriptures, and it has to do with warfare – spiritual warfare.
Psalms 119:SAMECH.
113 I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
Here the psalmist is taking a strong stand, the stand of hatred, toward “vain thoughts”. The word “hate” here in the Hebrew means to hate personally like an enemy. “Vain thoughts” means divided mind. “Law” is the Torah, which for us believers that have the New Covenant have this inscribed in our hearts. And love means strong affection. Putting this all together we get, “I hate when I have a divided mind, but I love the Law that is inscribed in my heart.” When we find ourselves struggling with thoughts trying to take the main stage in our mind and they are either detracting from or contrary to God’s ways, these are vain thoughts – we have a divided mind. The psalmist felt this and was fighting back with his words.
Psalms 119:114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.
115 Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.
116 Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
117 Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.
Here the psalmist is saying that God is his hiding place and defense. We see he is calling his vain thoughts evildoers, which means spoilers or something breaking into pieces. This is him speaking, or since this is a psalm, singing to himself, telling his divided thoughts to depart, which literally means to turn off. He calls to God to help him and to uphold him by His word. He knew where to turn when battling for His mind. James also writes about this.
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
James talks about how we can be tempted. He referred to the divided mind as being double minded, and that it makes us unstable. Since the thoughts always come first, these temptations will first be in our mind. This is what the writer of Psalms 119 was referring to when he said he hated a divided mind. We have to fight for our mind, for our thoughts. The psalmist spoke to himself, to his mind, with songs. This is how he turned off those thoughts for himself.
We have to fight for our thoughts and rely on the New Covenant, the Law written in our hearts. We have to trust that God wants to do these good things for us. Today if you have such a battle, fight back! Fight for your mind, and God will fight with you!
Prayer
Father, we exalt You as our Mighty Warrior King! We ask that You help us, your people, today to fight the battles in our mind. Help us to fight against anything that would distract us from Your ways and Your path in our life. Help us Father to turn these thoughts off that we might be able to meditate on Your word. Send today the healing and deliverance and provision that we need. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.