The frequency of unbelievably violent acts seems to be escalating. With media at our fingertips at all times, we have no shortage of video, transcripts, insights and commentators, all relaying events in the strongest possible terms, 24 hours a day. We can taste the blood, we can hear the screams. Over and over and over. Scared much? Each new tragedy is held up and no matter on which side of racial, political, or geographical lines we fall, we are instigated to action. You must be angry. You should be afraid. It's all someone's fault.

What bothers me most about these confusing, distressing events is how I see Christians reacting to them. We are being whipped into a frenzy. Instead of standing up against the prevailing spirit of hatred and fear, we are infected by it. We are doing Satan's work for him by spreading it.

Here are seven reasons not to give into fear, anger and hatred:

1. Satan, not God, motivates with hatred and fear. Satan, not God, works insidiously by dividing people and creating suspicion. With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to have self-control. We are to be lights. We are not to be yet another faction within our fragmenting culture.

2. We are not to fear people, only God. God is able to protect us from any person, any attack. Is your faith in your safety a light to those around you? 

3. Hatred and fear weaken your ability to reason and make good decisions. 

4. Hate and fear take you off of God's wavelength. Remember Peter could walk on water...until he looked around and feared the storm. Attune yourself to God's wavelength, not your news network's.

5. Hate and fear open you up to demonic influence. Remember King Saul. Paranoia is Satan's specialty, and he played Saul like a banjo. If you are finding yourself caught in a pattern of fearful, hateful thinking, you are still in control. You must resist the devil and he will flee from you.

6. Hate and fear kill love and faith. If we aren't living in love and faith, we aren't walking according to God's Word.

7. God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound mind. Fear makes us feel powerless, hateful, and paranoid. Ask God every day to fill you up with His Spirit, so that you are not influenced by the prevailing spirit around you.

Christians are to be recognized by their love. We are to be strong and courageous, loving and humble. We are to extend grace and forgiveness, to be a light of hope to the world—not victims or perpetuators of division, hate and fear. Choose today and every day to be a light in this darkening world. Don't spread the disease of hate and fear.