Time to pray for our enemies again...
You know what I hate? I was thinking today that we needed to do this, and I had a brilliant thought pop into my head, and now I don't remember it. Don't you just hate it when that happens?
Tonight in church, our pastor talked about loving others and that the result of God's love in us is loving others. He told a great story about a man who stayed with a wife who kept doing bad things because he wanted to show his kids the example of fatherly love. That no matter what we do, God does not abandon us. And he felt that if he abandoned his wife, what example would that be to his kids?
It really humbled me, because I don't think that I'd have that kind of strength.
I also began thinking in terms of loving my enemies, that maybe the reward of loving our enemies, of praying for them, isn't always going to be that one day, it'll all work out, and we'll be one big happy family. Instead, maybe it's more that it's the example we're giving to others of loving anyway.
I watched Joyce Meyer again today, and it was so interesting to hear her talk about how, as Christians, we have to watch how we portray ourselves, because you never know who is watching and using that to judge what being a Christian means. One of my personal pet topics, because I'm so sick of the negative stereotypical image of Christians.
Which occurred to me... by praying for our enemies, and sharing our love, what better way to show the world what it really means to have Christ in us by doing the unthinkable? To show our love, to pray, to do whatever it looks like to treat our enemies with grace, knowing that it will never be returned?
I wonder if that's a little of what God feels when He deals with some of us...
Tonight in church, our pastor talked about loving others and that the result of God's love in us is loving others. He told a great story about a man who stayed with a wife who kept doing bad things because he wanted to show his kids the example of fatherly love. That no matter what we do, God does not abandon us. And he felt that if he abandoned his wife, what example would that be to his kids?
It really humbled me, because I don't think that I'd have that kind of strength.
I also began thinking in terms of loving my enemies, that maybe the reward of loving our enemies, of praying for them, isn't always going to be that one day, it'll all work out, and we'll be one big happy family. Instead, maybe it's more that it's the example we're giving to others of loving anyway.
I watched Joyce Meyer again today, and it was so interesting to hear her talk about how, as Christians, we have to watch how we portray ourselves, because you never know who is watching and using that to judge what being a Christian means. One of my personal pet topics, because I'm so sick of the negative stereotypical image of Christians.
Which occurred to me... by praying for our enemies, and sharing our love, what better way to show the world what it really means to have Christ in us by doing the unthinkable? To show our love, to pray, to do whatever it looks like to treat our enemies with grace, knowing that it will never be returned?
I wonder if that's a little of what God feels when He deals with some of us...
posted by Danica Favorite at 10:01 PM
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