Love, Prayers, and Enemies

If you read news feeds on any particular day, you’ll probably be asking yourself, “Why do the “bad guys” seem to succeed in the world, while the rest of us are hanging on for dear life? It’s not easy to be confronted with continual hostility, cruelty, intolerance, and tsunami events that try to wash away every ounce of hope we try to carry. 

In Matthew 5:43 we see that Jesus has something to say about this. The scripture says, “You have heard that is was said, You should love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of our Father who is in heaven.”

Sure, we’ve heard this before, but we resist it. We struggle with having to love those who harass us, persecute us, challenge us, or forsake us. We struggle because we are better at loving people who are more like us, more agreeable to us, than those who fall far short of the mark. Perhaps the point that Jesus is trying to make is that hate has no place in the world. If we choose to be a reflection of God’s love than there’s only one way to do that. We have to love those He deems to be His children. If we look at John 3:16, then we have to realize that it says “God so loved the world,” If God so loved the world, that is people all over the world, and those we don’t understand, those we don’t agree with, and those who are unlovable by our standards, then we have to follow suit. We have to love like He does. Not only did God love the world, He sent His Son to squash the enemy, to stamp out hatred, and to redeem the lost. God so loved the world, He gave His only Son. 

Imagine what the world would be like if we simply didn’t have an ounce of hatred, malice, jealousy, and ill-temper in our bodies. What if we looked at every person we meet as a child of God, therefore loved, therefore redeemed? Would it then be easier to love our “enemies?” 

Clearly, we’ll all need to work on that, but we can start with prayer. We can start by asking God to help us love each person we encounter, the same way He loves them. We can pray for those who challenge our thinking, vex our spirits, and those who need us to help them discover the God we know. Let’s reflect His love without judgment, without anger, without any preconceived notions. If we do, the news of the day will change because the “good guys” will be winning. 

Thank you for being one of the good guys!