{"id":25946,"date":"2025-11-04T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=25946"},"modified":"2025-10-20T08:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:48:08","slug":"only-one-thing-can-change-a-hate-filled-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2025\/11\/only-one-thing-can-change-a-hate-filled-heart.html","title":{"rendered":"Only One Thing Can Change a Hate-Filled Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scrolling through\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0(formerly Twitter) can feel like walking through a storm of anger. The endless stream of posts filled with hate, outrage, and violence is overwhelming. Very little feels uplifting or encouraging anymore. It\u2019s not just disheartening\u2014it\u2019s deeply concerning.<\/p>\n

Proverbs 10:12 says,\u00a0\u201cHatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Sadly, that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re witnessing. Hatred is stirring up conflict at every level\u2014between individuals, communities, and even nations. It\u2019s creating division so deep that people are being targeted, threatened, and even harmed.<\/p>\n

You can hear the desperation in the news and online. Pleas to \u201clower the temperature,\u201d \u201ccurb the rage,\u201d and \u201cstop the hate\u201d echo across social media and media outlets. Yet despite all the calls for civility, nothing really changes. Why?<\/p>\n

Because hate isn\u2019t just a communication problem\u2014it\u2019s a heart problem.<\/p>\n

Scripture reminds us,\u00a0\u201cOut of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Matthew 12:34). What fills our hearts eventually spills out in our words and actions. We can\u2019t legislate or lecture people into love. Only God can take a hate-filled heart and make it new.<\/p>\n

The Bible gives us a stunning example of this transformation. Saul was once a man consumed by hatred\u2014a terrorist in every sense of the word\u2014hunting down followers of Jesus. But when he encountered Christ, everything changed. That same man became the Apostle Paul, one of the greatest messengers of love, grace, and truth the world has ever known.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the power of God. He alone can turn hate into love, bitterness into forgiveness, and darkness into light.<\/p>\n

Yet, in all our conversations about hate and division, we rarely talk about the spiritual solution to this spiritual problem. We try to fix it with education, policy, or social campaigns, but Scripture tells us plainly:\u00a0\u201cAnyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(1 John 2:9).<\/p>\n

Hate is the fruit of a darkened heart\u2014a sign that someone needs the transforming light of Christ. Jesus didn\u2019t just tell us to tolerate our enemies; He told us to\u00a0love\u00a0them and\u00a0pray\u00a0for them. Why? Because love and prayer are weapons of light. They pierce the darkness and make room for God to work in hearts that seem unreachable.<\/p>\n

Telling people to \u201cjust stop hating\u201d isn\u2019t working. But people\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0hungry for truth. They are searching for meaning, peace, and hope in a world that feels increasingly hostile. That\u2019s where we, as followers of Christ, come in.<\/p>\n

We need to speak the truth in love\u2014not with judgment or arrogance, but with compassion and conviction. Tell people the real solution: The only way to lose hate is to be filled with the love of God.<\/p>\n

So when you scroll through social media and feel the heaviness of all that hate, don\u2019t despair. Pray. Speak light into the darkness. And remember\u2014God still changes hearts. He always has, and He still can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scrolling through\u00a0X\u00a0(formerly Twitter) can feel like walking through a storm of anger. The endless stream of posts filled with hate, outrage, and violence is overwhelming. Very little feels uplifting or encouraging anymore. It\u2019s not just disheartening\u2014it\u2019s deeply concerning. Proverbs 10:12 says,\u00a0\u201cHatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.\u201d\u00a0Sadly, that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re witnessing.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4099],"tags":[75,732,9377,9371,9374,9368,2816,471],"class_list":["post-25946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stress","tag-anger","tag-hate","tag-hate-filled-heart","tag-spiritual-problems","tag-spiritual-solutions","tag-the-heart","tag-truth","tag-violence"],"yoast_head":"\nOnly One Thing Can Change a Hate-Filled Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pleas go out to curb the rage and stop the hate.Yet despite all the calls for civility, nothing really changes. Why?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=25946\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Only One Thing Can Change a Hate-Filled Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pleas go out to curb the rage and stop the hate.Yet despite all the calls for civility, nothing really changes. 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