When It’s Difficult to Love
Matthew 5:43-45 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who treat you badly. If you do this, you will be children who are truly like your Father in heaven. He lets the sun rise for all people, whether they are good or bad. He sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong.
From time to time, we all come across people who rub us the wrong way – perhaps even people who offend us, belittle us, seek to harm us. We wish we didn’t, but we do. So what exactly do you do with those people? How do you handle them?
Some of us, by our very nature, are more sensitive than others. Because of who God made me to be, I have a pretty thick skin. Others, like my beautiful wife, are softer, gentler, more easily bruised. But no matter how you’re wired, the time comes when those brutes out there will try to hurt you.
Why can’t they be like all the other nice people in your life? Why do they make it their business to become your enemy? And how are you going to deal with them?
Matthew 5:43-45 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who treat you badly. If you do this, you will be children who are truly like your Father in heaven. He lets the sun rise for all people, whether they are good or bad. He sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong.
Often what we want to do is to hate our enemies, to pay them back – either overtly or covertly. Shun them, spurn them, punish them … that is, after all, the most natural of human reactions.
But Jesus taught us something different. He taught us to pray for them. That so goes against the grain, doesn’t it? But … if you do this, you will be children who are truly like your Father in heaven.
Pray for your enemies.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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John banera
It requires the gift of the Holy Spirit for somebody not to seek revenge after a bruise on his person . This can only ...
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It requires the gift of the Holy Spirit for somebody not to seek revenge after a bruise on his person . This can only happen if you are a daily reader of his word with the presence of the holy guide and divine thinking.
Brenda Friesen
Hello, I would love some advice on how to behave towards my precious Christian friend who is blatantly going against ...
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Hello, I would love some advice on how to behave towards my precious Christian friend who is blatantly going against God’s Word. My friend is dating a guy who is not a believer, plus is a controlling man, The Lord opened a way to end the relationship, but she couldn’t handle the loneliness, and went back. She does not want me to judge her, and is trying to convince me that she has total peace about being unequally yoked. I don’t think it’s right of me to end our friendship over this but I need help! Brenda