January 6, 2021 Love My Enemies?

Genesis 11-12

Psalm 5:1-6

Proverbs 1:15-16

Matthew 5:27-47

Love My Enemies?

“But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”

Matthew 5:44

I don’t really think of myself as someone who has a lot of enemies. I get along with most everyone. Recently, however, God has shown me that there are some people in my life to whom I have been harboring bad feelings and unforgiveness. These people don’t even know that I feel this way about them and quite frankly, I wasn’t even aware of it myself in most cases. As I began to examine my heart and my thoughts when confronted with situations involving these individuals, I didn’t like what I saw. I often expected them to respond negatively to me or say someone offensive even before they did. And I was quick to grumble and complain about having to be around them. There was very little of God’s love and mercy flowing out of me toward them. I felt justified in my feelings and thoughts toward them and didn’t see any need to deal with it. After all, since they did not know how I felt, it was better to just ignore it, right?

Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” God rarely lets me get by with doing things the easy way. I am spending a lot of time right now praying for them. It is amazing how difficult it is to continue to feel negatively toward someone I am earnestly praying for daily. Do you have any enemies?