It takes a long time to load a ship with cargo. It just doesn’t get put down in the hold in one gigantic swing of the loading crane. Load after load is slowly and carefully let down and secured in place with chains to keep it from getting torn loose and reeking havoc when the seas get rough and the ship rolls and pitches with each tormenting wave.
Carefully, load after load is let down into the hold until it can hold no more. One more load and the hatches couldn’t be battened down. One more load and the ship wouldn’t be able to sail under control. But it does come as the crane operator has his own priority and that is to empty the dock — to leave it clean. That one last load of cargo now chained in the hold is just too much. For the captain, this one last load has halted his plans to set sail on time and his ship will remain tied to the dock until he resolves the problem. As he looks down at the dock it’s now empty and the crane stands alone with no one to take that last load away.
Has your ship been overloaded? Has that one last load been brought onboard that added just too much? For me it happened this morning and the revelation of the contents in the hold of my ship wasn’t pretty.
As I have grown older there has certainly been an increase in wisdom and a little more tolerance for things that used to bother me. Oh not because I set them aside, it’s just that it takes too much energy to deal with them and I just let them slide. You know, men that wear their caps on backwards and won’t take them off when they go inside, in the presence of a lady or when the national anthem is played; waistlines that begin at the knees; clothes that look like gangsters on kids that wouldn’t know one if they saw one — I could go on but you get the picture. Getting older has its benefits but it also has some serious issues.
The issue on my plate this morning had to do with those things down in my cargo hold that are chained in place and are keeping me from moving ahead with God’s plan for my life. As difficult as it is for me to write it, those things being held in place are anger and hate.
Hate in the bible is portrayed in a number of ways:
Eccl 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Amos 5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
That sounds good until you look at what Jesus said:
Matt 5:43-46: Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 44. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? KJV
And so the problem at hand:
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
This morning it finally hit me that my “spiritual ship” was filled with just too much cargo; it was chained down far too tightly. The world around me had so filled my cargo hold with anger and hate that my spiritual ship was going nowhere. But more importantly I realized that the chains holding down that hate were all the “judgments” I have been making.
Now trust me here, I’m not talking about backwards ball caps and baggy pants.
I’m talking about the things that are a threat to my “comfort,” the beliefs that I hold dear to my heart. You have no idea how hard that was for me to write. But there it is, judging things always ends up in judging people. And like Paul — but what I hate, that do I.
Now I know that you have already jumped in your mind to:
Matt 7:1-2 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Don’t think that hasn’t entered my mind more than once. But the hatred for those who are threatening my beliefs has been stronger than my fear of that verse. I will be completely transparent here: abortion, terrorism, liberal theology, humanism forcing acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle on our children and number one on the list is the purging of God from our country. I could go on but once again you have the picture. Behind each one of these hates are “people.” And you have a hard time hating the object without eventually hating the ones that support it. The Word tells us to hate the sin and not the sinner; that is simply easier said than done.
So where does that leave me (us)?
Well it left me on my knees this morning asking God that same question. And here is what He told me.
The reason that He left all judgment to Himself is for the very reason I came before Him this morning. Judgment can lead to hate and it’s that hate that slowly fills up your cargo hold. Judgment is the crane operator on the pier that keeps putting load after load into the hold and chaining it in place. If you (the officer of the deck) don’t pay attention to what is being loaded and compare that against the cargo manifest it’s your mistake – the end result is on your shoulders. The crane operator (your judgment) will keep loading “anger and hate” onboard as long as you allow it to continue; even though your manifest calls for a cargo of “love.” It’s your watch on deck and you are responsible for the cargo.
What finally brought this to the surface for me was all the anger (which turns into hate if you don’t let it go) that has been building against the politicians inWashingtonand the decisions they have been making. Those decisions that “I” have judged to be absolutely wrong and against everything I believe God stands for and asks me to stand for.
Didn’t Jesus wipe out the temple?
Well, that’s not a very strong leg to stand on; at least it wasn’t this morning. While I may use it as a justification it does not resolve my problem. And my problem? Spiritually I am going nowhere at the moment.
God showed me that the anger and hate that I have, even though they are leveled at the very things He “hates,” are burdens I was not created to carry. He has promised that He will balance the scales when he comes. Listen once again to what Paul said:
Rom 12:19-13:1 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
I came to realize that I have been expending a tremendous amount of energy in thinking about, talking about and worrying about all of these “injustices” and those behind them. The result is a cargo hold full of hate and anger that are chained in place and they are going nowhere. Maybe that’s what happens when we not only live in this world but “become” a part of it. We do live in this world but clearly Jesus told us we are definitely not a part of it.
John 15:18-19 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
The issue I was dealing with this morning is the fact that I am absolutely powerless to rid myself of the anger, hate and judgment that I feel is justified. Let’s face it, killing unborn children angers me and I hate those that do it, support it or accept it as a fact of life. But as usual my heavenly Father had a different answer for His stubborn child.
He agreed that I do not have the power or the strength to stop. He understands the feelings of injustice that I feel. He also created the solution before he created Adam and Eve. He has given me His Spirit whose job it is to:
John 16:8-11 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9. Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Judgment has already come – it’s only the sentence that hasn’t been carried out yet.
And it’s the power of the Holy Spirit that can break the chains of judgment that keep holding all my anger and hate in place. It was that power that I called upon this morning, having come to the end of my attempts to remove the hindrances that have kept my spiritual ship moored to the dock. Was it instantaneous? Did a huge burden lift off my shoulders? Did the room fill with the light of revelation?
No.
But that still small voice down inside gave me the place to start:
Matt 5:44-45 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
God doesn’t expect me to solve the problem and deal with the sin of hate and anger (sin was dealt with on the cross). But what I am required to do is admit the sin, ask for forgiveness and repent (1John 1:9). The first two are not so hard but it’s the third one that requires getting down into first gear. Repenting is a decision to make a 180 degree turn away from the sin and change. And that is where the Lord promises me He is more than able to help me. And the place to start calling on that help is on my knees.
We are called upon to pray not only for the situation or circumstance but for those behind them. It’s in prayer that my “chains of judgment” will be broken and my “cargo of anger and hate” will be offloaded. And once again my spiritual ship will be underway, following the Captain’s orders as usual.
I know it won’t be easy but He promised me that if I commit to pray for those issues and people oppressing me I will eventually see my burden replaced with love. That seems like a heavy task to me but then maybe that is because I’ve built up quite a large cargo over the years. The joy, however, is in knowing that His promises are unfailing and that He is fully faithful in completing that which He started.
Phil 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
After all, He sees me just like Jesus. Right there in the middle of a ship full of anger and hate He sees the finished product as He looks through His Son and into my heart. What an awesome God we serve, who can reach down from heaven and touch a heart that aches with a love we can’t understand and remove all the barriers between us; those barriers that we are guilty of creating.
If by chance the world today and all that is transpiring has gotten you down and you feel angry and frustrated with the situation, you might want to take a look at the cargo you’re carrying and talk to the dock master about getting it removed.
I did and I know it works. There is an empty slip at the pier this morning as a certain ship got underway once again.