#MeditationMonday‬ – Out of the abundance of a man’s heart, his mouth speaks.

Welcome, dearly beloved. I pray the mercies of God over you throughout this week. I hope to encourage and build you up in the Lord. I pray you gain a deeper understanding of these verses. As you grow in knowledge and understanding, may you be empowered to share your convictions with others.

We discussed last week in a separate post about things that make God angry, citing the acts listed in our #meditationmonday verse:

Proverbs 6:16-19 [NET]

There are six things the Lord hates, even seven things that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift to run to evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who spreads discord among family members.

Studying the list of the things God hates helps reveal the things He loves! As we begin to hate the things that He hates, our minds become more and more like God’s mind. Last week, we went through points 1 & 2: Haughty eyes and a lying tongue. This week, we continue with point 3: Hands that shed innocent blood. Be enlightened as you read.

3. Hands That Shed Innocent Blood

This is one that often starts many spirited debates, particularly on abortion and the issue of an unborn child being “innocent blood”. We do not intend to get into the abortion argument under this heading but what we will say is that God created life and we are commanded to honour it.  Many of us are familiar with The 10 Commandments and the particular one we’re concerned with here is, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13 [KJV]).

The problem is that the word “kill” in the KJV is that it is not the most accurate translation. If God were against killing, He would be a hypocrite because He Himself took the lives of several people in the Old Testament. Furthermore, the word “kill,” would also include animals. Therefore, to say that God is against killing altogether, is not an accurate statement. In the New Testament, the commandment is translated “Thou shalt do no murder” (Matthew 5:21, 19:18 [KJV]). God is against murder, not killing. What’s the difference? Well, a murderer is someone who intentionally took an innocent life.

Now, this brings us to our 3rd point, “Hands that shed innocent blood.”

The Old Testament is riddled with references to what is right and wrong when it comes to taking someone’s life. (See Numbers 35:9-34, Deuteronomy 19:1-13).  In these passages, those who killed someone by mistake are to be handled differently than those who flat out murder.

This does not mean we are to support death, but we are to support life to support it to the best of our ability.  Life is God’s greatest creation and we ought to honour it so much that we cannot allow those who shed innocent blood to go unpunished.

When it comes to murder, God can determine the relative character of individuals without their having any specific knowledge about Him. All that God needs to evaluate our spiritual potential is to sit back and watch how we treat one another! We can murder people with our looks and words, sometimes by accident but often times we intentionally say or do things that murder our fellow brothers/sisters.

Have you ever thought, that your facial expression can murder a person?

Give some thought to it today, someone may go home hurt, crying or agonising about how you looked at them with a “judgmental or condemning” look.

A scantily clad lady, who just had an abortion walks past you and you look at her in a way that made her feel horrible because she was dressed indecently, you didn’t mean to but it happened anyway and she goes home and commits suicide. 

Don’t say, oh that’s so far-fetched, it couldn’t possibly have been my fault. But, maybe all she needed to clear the guilt she was feeling as she walked home from the horrible mistake she had made was your smile, and in that moment you missed out on the leading of the Holy Spirit to smile at her.

Whenever the Holy Spirit is leading us to do something for someone and we go our own way, we murder that person. 

Indeed, God may use someone else to reach them but in that moment, what you are saying to God is “I don’t love my neighbour as much as I love myself”. You didn’t love that person enough to stop and listen to what the Holy Spirit was trying to tell you about them, you didn’t stop to let the Holy Spirit use you, and that is committing murder.

You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and any other commandment are summed up in this statement: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

— Romans 13:9 [AMP]

The Opposite:

Rather than being murderers we must love and seek the well-being of others.

Do you know that the blood of the innocent cries out? The blood of Abel cried out and so did the blood of Jesus on the cross. The slaughter and suffering of innocent people, whose blood has soaked the earth cries out to God every day. Do we agonise over their suffering?

Many Christians are psychological serial killers. They are able to control themselves so they don’t physically murder others, as a matter of fact, some don’t even get the impulse to physically murder, but they have a strong desire to emotionally and psychologically hurt others with their words and actions. That needs to stop. We must pray against such desires.

We must love the lives and seek the well-being (physical, emotional and psychological) of all of those who may someday be in God’s family.

Whenever there is an urge to hurt someone, take that person to God in prayer. Not prayers of complaining and grumbling against the person or praying spiritual warfare for harm to come to the person, but pray prayers of love.

As we communicate with our Heavenly father who also loves that person more than we can imagine, He causes us to see that person the way He sees them and through this, He teaches us to love those we hate.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for loving me, even while I was under the influence of satan. I praise you for delivering me out of the kingdom of darkness into your marvellous light. I believe you have cleansed me of a murderous attitude and I declare by faith, that sin does not rule over me. From now on, I love what God loves and hate what He hates. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!

Grace & Peace!