Matthew 5:43-45 | Love Your Enemies

Matthew 5:43-45 NIV says, “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.”

Do you want to grow in your abiding? Do you want to move more into our identity as a child of God? Pray for your enemies.

Perhaps even harder is the command to love your enemies. We can pray for just about anyone and be “obedient” in that sense. We can even pray a positive prayer and bless those who hurt us, but to learn to love them? That is a whole new level of surrender.

Yet this is the will of God for us. To be clear, I don’t believe this passage refers to abusive or manipulative relationships. We can always skew and warp the word of God. But this is talking about the people who have wronged you. The ones who have betrayed you and broken your trust. The unbelievers who are working against you because of your faith.

I love the wisdom of Jesus’ prayer here. He simply calls us to learn to love and then pray. Two simple steps can transform our life of prayer.

I don’t know how all things in the kingdom of heaven work, but I understand that we miss out on something of the Father’s heart if we never pray for our enemies and those who hurt us. A deeper surrender and transformation can take place when we open ourselves up to this command.

I know this is a big challenge, but I think there is a big reward at the other end.

Blessings.

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