Get out of here!
“Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” — Matthew 4:10
If he screams that way at me again, I’ll call the police. I’ll ask for an officer of the law to be present to another tirade.
I’m speaking of a time a hothead exploded with a sudden, loud, nasty, ugly bomb that still stinks if the wind blows a certain way.
We are to love our neighbor. We are to love those who persecute us.
But we don’t have to be verbally abused by them. We should never be verbally abused by them.
Lent is a time we draw even closer to Jesus who models in Matthew 4:10 that we don’t have to take mess, muck, or heat-laden missiles directed at us. Jesus is saying to Satan what can equip and empower us, and it’s this cool, calm statement. “Just go, evil. Get out of here.”
We likely cannot stop the mess, muck or missile, but we do not have to be mired by it. Just as Jesus said to Satan, “Get out of here,” say those same words to whatever stinks or sinks love, justice and mercy. Then, with peace, we can journey even more closely to Jesus because we will find ourselves even more like Jesus.
PRAYER: We may have to distance ourselves and others from those who explode, but Lord, we pray we never distance ourselves from You, our Agent of love, justice and mercy.
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