Your Enemies

Finally, from Matthew 5:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

This is how our world lives. If people are nice to us, we’re nice back to them.  That’s so easy.  But if people are nasty to us, we are nasty right back and feel justified in our hatred toward them.  In fact, our society teaches and encourages us to hate those who are against what we believe, how we live, or the way we look.  Hatred is talked about, written about in graffiti, and sung about in lyrics by our teens.

Jesus says here to love our enemies, in fact; pray for them.

If we are going to call ourselves children of God, then we have to act like God’s children.  God loves us in our darkest moments, he forgives us, he receives us over and over again when we’ve wronged him a thousand times, and he never ever hates us.  In fact, he loves us with a love that endures forever.

We can’t do this alone.  But we must do it with him.  Prayer releases what we bottle up inside, and opens the door for love to overflow.

Loving an enemy never means we are saying it’s okay to be abused.

Loving an enemy does mean we are saying that he/she needs Christ, just like we do, and that only love will conquer hate.  And prayer moves mountains.

Do you only love those who are kind and generous to you?  Try loving your enemies, those you can’t stand to be around. And pray for them.

And ask your Father if he has room for that person to be your brother/sister in his family, just like he made room for you.