Victory is to "Love your Enemies"
(Preacher Green in the Movie The Help)
In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verse 43-48, tell us, “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. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Luke 6:35 says, ” But love ye your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of the Highest; for He is kind to the unthankful, and to the evil.”
Jesus, our teacher, prayed for his own enemies during his execution; He said, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 23:34)
We need the grace of God to be able to pray well for our enemies. The reason why we must love our enemies and pray for them is so that we may become true children of our Heavenly Father, who is good to both bad, and good, people. (cf Mt 5:45) As human beings we have the tendency to be good only to those who are good to us. But as Christians we are challenged to be good to those who are bad to us. In order to be true disciples of Jesus, we need to pray for the forgiveness of our enemies, just like Jesus did.
When you pray for your enemies, they become your friends. One day a man in our church almost got into a fight with me because of different views on Chiropractic and in-vitro fertilization. The gentleman was very rude to me . So, after the argument I decided to pray for the conversion of this gentleman and spiritually adopted him as my father. A year later I ran into him and his wife in the supermarket and the gentleman and his wife had forgotten the disagreement and we were like a long lost family friend to our family.
I have found when you pray for your enemies your heart changes and so does theirs! To learn more about Spiritual adoption read this amazing book written by my wife Esmeralda:
https://www.theadoptionmovement.com/
In Matthew, chapter 6 verse 14-15, says that “if you forgive others their transgression, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."
To “Love Your Enemy” is to find it in your heart to put aside any wrongs, and to love them as a child of God and see them as our brothers and sisters who were created by the same Father in Heaven and for whom Jesus Himself gave up His life on the cross.
So my brothers, love your enemy because those who deserve love least, need it most. Hate not your enemy, life is too short for hate; and think of no revenge, and if you want to take any revenge at all, remember that the noblest revenge is to forgive and to love.
Evil can only be overcome with love. Let us forgive and pray for our brothers and sisters who trespass against us for the Glory of God and the salvation of their souls and our own.
Keep up the great work!
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