The Destruction of Hate

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading and studying the book of Esther. This has caused me to reflect on how hate and bitterness consumed Haman. Hate and bitterness are powerful emotions that, especially when combined with pride, can take over sound judgement, logic and rational thought process... take over a person. These emotions form a slippery slope that burry love, compassion, grace, mercy beneath the avalanch of evil. 
As I read and reflect, my heart aches for those caught on Haman's slippery slope today. One only needs to turn on a TV or open a paper... let alone open social media... to see evidence of how hate consumes and blinds. Hate is a tried and true tool that Satan has been using for centuries. It breaks my heart to see so much evidence of his work all around us.
I pray that people would seek the fruits of the Holy Spirit more than ever, and that they would allow these fruits - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control  - to flourish and overpower hate.
I pray that hate would not continue to blind, and that Haman's story would not be the story of our time. 
I pray that evil would be exposed and hate driven agendas would be thwarted.
I pray that the wounds of hate may be healed before they destroy.
I pray that the cancer of hate would not spread and that the scars of hate would diminish as hate is put aside.
I pray that the destruction that hate brings would be replaced by the restoration of kindness, gentleness and self control
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