Only abundance can help. But what is that? By Joshua Nebblett

Reading time: 3 minutes

Injustice. How I hate it.

My wife Shayla had called me for breakfast. I put on a shirt, grabbed my phone, and was just heading for the door when it buzzed. I glanced at the screen, and my pleasant morning was ruined. First, my pulse slowed, then my heart pounded. My face turned bright red. My collar felt too tight. I had completely lost my appetite (inconvenient, just 90 seconds before I reached the table).

The trigger is irrelevant. The fact that it lasted less than 10 seconds is appalling. Peace is gone. Instead, there is massive outrage, confusion, disappointment, and indignation.

I struggled all day. Probably my hardest day in over three years. It was difficult for me to seek mercy. feelings to pray. I was in the middle of endless month-end closings, employee inquiries, loan applications, meetings; in addition to the daily flood of emails and messages from other communication platforms.

To the extent that I truly abhor tyranny, I also love freedom. But a spirit of freedom (mercy) towards those who are unjust is virtually impossible for me, a wretched worm. All day long I fought against the very sin in my own heart that I condemned in others.

Twenty-four hours later, still begging for mercy and peace, I began to read an article that one of my brothers-in-law had sent me two days earlier. We had been discussing a completely different theological topic. What I read there literally saved me.

“Humanity in its fullness excludes all pride, gentleness in its fullness anger, mildness all cruelty, goodness all evil, justice all injustice, holiness all sin, mercy all lovelessness and revenge, truth all falsehood and dissimulation; and where one loves God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, and with all the strength, there is no room for enmity or hatred against Him or against anything that belongs to Him; therefore, if a person loves his neighbor as himself, he will do no harm to that neighbor; on the contrary, he will feel friendly feelings toward him and do good to him as far as possible.” Adam Clarke

The concept of abundance hadn't been clear to me. Love is surely the most profound element in the universe – no injustice or tyranny, no deceit or malice can even partially displace the abundance of love in a vessel. When the vessel is full of love, nothing of the opposite can fit in.

I lost my peace in 10 seconds. The struggle over it lasted 24 hours. But I got it back in 30 seconds.

Thank you so much, Lord Jesus, for your abundance!

“From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.” (John 1:16)