Saturday Reading: Matthew 5:43-47
Key Verse: Matthew 5:44
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you,
Devotion:
One thing that is hard to do is to love your enemies; but through God we can have that grace and strength to do exactly that! When God gave the commandments and law to Moses He taught the people to love their enemies through laws such as in Exodus 23 where they are commanded to help their enemies. Right through our bibles we have God’s Word reminding us to respect our enemies and to treat them as you would your friends. That does not mean that we have to invite them in for dinner but it does mean that if they need help, we must not close off our help to them just because they are what we call our enemies. We are all God’s creation and that means we need to look after each other.
Enemies will only stay enemies for as long as they agree to be enemies. Being a one-sided enemy is quite difficult! Someone has to start off the cycle of getting to be friends though because as long as you treat each other as enemies you will stay that way with neither side wishing to make the first move. A simple act of showing someone that you care for them as a person even if you do not care for their ways will allow them to see a truth inside you that God will be able to build on. We will probably not be able to convince our enemies that they can be our friends, but God can do that!
It is no use jumping on the band wagon and acting like all other people otherwise we will be seen as ‘normal people’ who have their fair share of enemies. But if we are willing to listen to God’s guidance and to show other respect when they do not expect it, we will be showing them that we have a far greater respect for our God who’s laws we are trying to uphold. Let them know why you do what you do. Let them know it is because God has commanded it and that we know just how powerful our God is! Let them know that God loves them more than we can...
Points to Ponder:
Do you show everyone respect?
Are you working for God?
