Love Your Enemies

I’ve been putting off writing this post.

I know it’s going to challenge me…

Challenge me to write it and to live it.

But I guess a challenge can be a good thing, can’t it? Challenges have a way of growing us, to move us beyond ourselves and our comfort zones, and to come away with a different perspective.

So here goes…

Love Your Enemies.

enemy:  a person who feels hatred for, fosters harmful designs against, or engages in antagonistic activities against another; an adversary or opponent.

I’m guessing none of us seek to have enemies. We want to be friends and get along with everyone, don’t we?

But for one reason or another, there’s someone in this world who may not like you or me. No matter what we do or how hard we try. Or maybe we hurt this person in the past, and he/she doesn’t care to forgive us after we’ve asked for forgiveness.

What do we do with those who don’t like us? Who feel hatred for us? Who we are an “enemy” to?

I used to do all sorts of things. I tried to ignore them. I harbored bitter feelings toward them, because that’s the way they felt about me. When their actions would hurt me, I would get upset and want to retaliate.

The interesting thing is, none of these actions made anything better.

Then I learned what God had to say about how to treat my enemies. It was quite the opposite of my actions.

I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.  Luke 6:35 The Message

And one more…

I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves.  Matthew 5:44-45a The Message

Love your enemies.

Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst.

Respond with energies of prayer.

These three things change our heart toward our “enemies,” and can quite possibly change their hearts toward us.

This is a start. Tomorrow we’ll share some practical ideas on how to love our enemies. They might be enemies now, but they don’t have to stay that way.

So glad you stopped in today. I’d love to hear from you below! Please share your thoughts below on loving our enemies, and if you have some tips I can share in my post tomorrow, please share those too.

God bless you, friend!

Julie

 

It’s Day 24 of 31 Days Of Loving God & Loving Others!