Love Your Enemies

Scripture:
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" Matthew 5:44
"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" Luke 6:27

The scriptures tell us to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, and do good for those who hate you. Now I hope you don't have any real enemies or have anyone who really hates you, but I am sure that we all have people who don't like us and and people we don't like, and we try to avoid them and they try to avoid us. In a mild or passive way, I see this as a kind of persecution. We don't like someone, so we don't try to have a relationship with them, we avoid them, or we even let our friends know that we don't particularly like that other person.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Now this seems a little extreme, but if Jesus wanted us to love our enemies, what do you think he wants us to do with our relationships, or lack thereof, of people we don't like or people who don't like us? That's right, love them, pray for them and do good to them. Avoiding them and not caring for them does not seem like the right thing to do according to what are Lord told us to do in these scriptures.

Who is the person you don't like, or are avoiding? Maybe they did something to offend you, or you did something to offend them. Even if you don't have a heart to love them yet, or can't muster up enough effort to do good to them, we should a least be praying for them. And my guess is, that if we start praying for them, God will start by changing our hearts and then maybe he will show you how to start loving them and doing good to them.

Prayer Request:
That we love others as Christ loved us.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, We know there are people in our lives that we do not like or that rub us the wrong way, but your command to us is to love them, pray for them and do good to them. This is going to be hard for us, Lord, but please give us the strength to obey this command and teach us your love, so that we can show them YOUR love.