Prejudice overwhelms us and prevents us from seeing and experiencing so many things in life. A prejudice, once formed, can take a long time to undo. It can kill our enjoyment of so many things. Having a preference for one thing over another is natural. Turning that preference into a prejudice against someone or something is extremely damaging for us, and can be for the other person.
How much divisiveness do we allow around our lives because we have moved too easily from a preference to a prejudice? Prejudice is our responsibility to overcome. No one makes us prejudice. The actions of others should have no bearing upon our response. We do the right thing regardless of people and circumstances because we want to live the right way before God.
As children, we can be born into prejudice, and we unconsciously take on the attitudes of the older generation around us. When we come into Christ, he will do violence to anything that limits our capacity to receive and walk with him in love. Prejudice makes prisoners of us all. It binds our hearts and limits our capacity to walk in the fullness of God.
Prejudice is a demonic device because it is uniquely designed to kill both sides. The object and the subject both dies. For the enemy it is a “heads you lose, tales I win” situation. Prejudice makes losers of us all.
The starting place for undoing a prejudice is our own repentance. I love repentance! It takes all that the enemy has done and turns it to zero in our hearts. Repentance is the key to unlock what has already bound our hearts. Wholehearted repentance is the foundation for a change of thinking. A mindset can only be replaced by another mindset. A mindset on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace (Romans 8: 6).
Repentance restores us to God, creates the possibility of new thinking and leads to a new perspective that empowers a different approach. We must take responsibility not only for what we have done wrong, but also for the lack of blessing that we could have released had we not been bigoted or biased.
Walking in love with Jesus means that we have his permission and blessing to overflow in grace and favor to all that we meet in the course of life. Prejudice prevents blessing from flowing, and we are the poorer because of it.
Look at the relationships around your life. How many have been damaged by a perception or a thought rooted in a bias? How much and what manner of blessing has been restricted through you because of partiality? How much of your own heart has been closed off or shut down due to your own intolerance?
When we take the steps of recovery that repentance offers to us it frees us from what has been holding us captive and now we can grow spiritually.