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Enemies

             For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:10)

Recently, I got the idea to be more disciplined about my praying, moving through categories in order of priority: the Church, family, community, authorities, enemies, and myself. Given today’s verse, the enemies portion is the focus. Fortunately, the itemized portion of that list is short. Most days, there are no names that come to mind. That doesn’t mean that I think I have no enemies. I’m sure I have many. I can’t think of any names.

The general prayer for my general enemies is that God would cause them to be a blessing in my life, and me to be a blessing in theirs. I pray that, where possible, the enmity between us would be resolved.

I’m not sharing this to impress you with how spiritual or wonderful I am. If the purpose of being a follower of Jesus Christ involves following His example, then how we respond to our enemies is part of the deal. God reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son. We are saved through Jesus’ life. And when did the reconciling and salvation took place? In your case and mine, it took place centuries before we were born, and even longer before our first act of rebellion and hatred toward Him. It didn’t wait until we apologized or changed our ways.

I’m not saying we let someone who has hurt us hurt us again. I am saying that the choice to be enemies should be theirs, not ours. Jesus told us we are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27 & 33.) 

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