But I
say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
Luke
6:27-28
As we have studied
the last couple of days, today’s devotional deals with the fact that as a
Christian we are held to a higher standard or way of living… Today’s message
echo’s our focus this week which elaborates on the fact that you are to love your enemies and do good to them which
hate you… Understand today that how you handle people is a direct example
of who you feel Christ has dealt with you… Remember today that you were undeserving
of His love, grace and mercy just like the people who irk your nerves; however,
we have to model Christ and continue to love others even if they don’t know how
to love you in return… Again, as we have studied throughout the week,
know that as believers in Christ we are held to a higher standard… We must go the extra mile and extend hands
of kindness to those who may not be grateful… In this journey of life we
must speak words of encouragement to those who may be gossiping about us and we
must stay focused on exalting God through our living… Jesus gives us instructs
that we are called to live by today; we are not called to extend helping hands
to just believers in Christ; we are called to see each and every moment in our
lives as a chances to display our faith and God’s faithfulness… We give not
expecting anything in return, we give showing that we are of Christ and that we
want to bring praise and honor to the name that is above us… Jesus goes on in
this chapter to say what good is it to give to your brother, even sinners do
that… If we were just focused on living within the church we wouldn’t be able
to bring others to Christ and the church wouldn’t grow… Jesus called disciples
from all works of earth and from every religious background of position…
Matthew was a tax collector, Peter was a fisherman and Nicodemus was a Pharisee…
It didn’t matter what you were when you
encountered Jesus, but what you became after you walked with Him… Know that
we are called not to judge people, but to allow them to encounter Christ
through the beacon light that He has placed in us… A child of God is a person
who continues to grow under the guidance and direction of the Lord… The key to
your Christian walk is growth and one of the biggest forums that your growth is
displayed in is how you treat your enemies… We all have heard the saying that “not
everyone will like you;” however, the challenge is put forth by God’s
calling upon our lives to be able to extend a hand of love to any and everyone
that we come in contact with… Luke says that we are to love our enemies, bless
them that curse you and pray for those who despitefully use you…
It doesn’t
matter what the person has done to you or how long you have been affected, the
steps that you are to take today are aligned under one of these choices (Love,
Bless or Pray)… An enemy is one who simply opposes you, they constantly go
against the grain and challenge you daily; we are called to love that person,
continue to try and lift them up, continue to try and show them the right way,
continue to try and impact their lives… To
bless means that you consecrate, approve or exalt… When someone curses you, you in turn bless them by exalting their name
before the Lord; you bless them by covering them in the blood of the lamb and
not retaliating according to the errors of their ways… One of the most
difficult things we are asked to do as a Christian is to pray for those who
abuse us (mentally or physically)… Prayer is a conversation between you and the
Lord, when we pray it is very hard to put our own desires aside and left up
another person, especially if this person has wronged us and has evil
intentions… Prayer takes time and focus, as a child of God we must put aside
anger, malice and evil thoughts to bring about repentance, peace and God’s
love… When we can love, bless and pray; we are growing in Christ and are a child
of God… Time and time again you have heard me talk about how this walk as a
Christian is not easy, today is more evidence to that statement… God calls us
to be His child, with that calling we are called to go above the norm, be
better than we were and achieve greatness within His will… In order to accomplish these things we must be able to overcome the
snares of the devil which can be a person who is your enemy or who curses you
or who despitefully uses you… Luke reminds us that as a child of God we are
to simply love unconditionally; we are to embrace our enemies and do good to
those who hate you… This is much easier said than done, but this is a measure
of your faith within the will of God! Many times we allow relationships to end
and terminate people from our lives because of mistakes that have been made,
when this occurs we are allowing the weight of sin and bondage to be placed in
our lives and the lives of others! By not forgiving and seeking resolution we
allow this conflict to fester and ultimately guide our footsteps in a way that
removes us from the will of God… Another reason as to why we must
focus on doing good to others is because of the faith that we proclaim to have!
We believe that Christ gave himself as the atoning sacrifice and died for our
sins… In that belief we know that we were enemies to God by our sinful nature,
we despised him and cursed him by our actions, but He blessed us anyway in the
form of His son and still at this present time looks beyond our faults and
continues to give us the things that we stand in need of… Remember the grace that God bestowed upon you when you were His enemy
and bestow that same grace upon your enemies as a child of God…
BE BLESSED!!!
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