Devotionals

What Does The Lord Hate Most?

by Robert [Bob] Schaetzle Sr. 
08/27/25
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                    What Does The Lord Hate Most?
                         By Robert Schaetzle

“Behold, I will press you down in your place,
 as a cart full of sheaves presses down.” Amos 2:13 ESV

I recall as a youngster in my early days in boy scouting, there were some of us playing around and doing stuff we probably should not have been doing. Wrestling and other kinds of things young boys are apt to do in an inappropriate place and time. There was this boy, a lot bigger and heavier than me, who sat on top of me, and I could not breathe.  For sure, he was pressing me down in my place.

The prophet Amos shares our Lord will put on those, or press them down, who are ‘out of order,’ as it were, like being smothered under a stack of hay. Seasons come, in our living when we might stray from ‘the narrow gate,’ (Mathew 7:13-14) and need to recognize how we too become ‘pressed down.’

Yet when God disciplines us, we must recognize as the writer of Hebrews shares; ‘Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from his sight… for we must all give account.’ From Hebrews 4:11-13

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 One of my favorite promises of forgiveness and compassion, when we might stray from the ‘narrow path.’  

I feel these words are evidence to my question, what God hates most. ‘Disbeleif,’ or choosing to think “God is not my sufficiency in this matter!”

Father, help us to put you first, most, and foremost, always, amen

Robert serves in a sharing and Caring Ministry to encourage and strengthen God’s presence in us