156 of 365 - Love Your enemies

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you… Luke 6:27

So how do we get to a place of true blessing with God as the filler of all the holes in our hearts, our lives, our contentment and joy? Perhaps this burning question is why Jesus launches into His next teaching.

Jesus tells us to love. Yes, we love those who love us, that is easy. But Jesus says to love our enemies. And love is an action, not a feeling. Love does stuff. We do good to those who hate us. We bless those who curse us. We pray for those who abuse us. These are HARD words to hear, much less do.

Loving doesn’t mean condoning, and it doesn’t mean passivity, but it does mean responding differently. It is stepping outside of our entitlement mindset that makes things all about us, and moving into reliance on God…His justice, His mercy, His grace. Because when we do these humanly impossible things, it isn’t us doing them. It isn’t our natural inclination. It is all the power of God in us. We have to tap into Him to be able to do these things, and we can do these things until we feel these things. We can act like the person we want to become. It isn’t faking…it is trusting God to come in and change us.

It is about loosening the grip on the things we strive so hard for and cling so tightly to. And in that loosened grip – that poverty, hunger, emptying – we are filled even more with God. Oh boy, how hard it is to make that leap. Honestly, I haven’t fully figured it out. But I want to.

​Oh, God, change my want to. Help me want Your definition of blessing more than I want my definition of blessing. And in the meantime, help me to LOVE as You love. Help me to see people and my surroundings through Your eyes, not my own.  Help me to be the person You see when You look at me. Help me to trust You enough to do what You say, even when I don’t yet feel it.
 
Challenge: Try to go through the day thinking about how Jesus would love in each scenario you are in. What would He do? What would He say?