LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Jesus’s life was always counter-cultural—not just for the sake of being contrary—but because the truths the society of His time abided by didn’t line up with God’s way of living. 

God operates from a position of forgiveness, whereas sometimes we can operate from a desire to get revenge, or make sure someone feels the sting of how they wronged us. 

What if the way we responded to being hurt, though, was with prayer? 

When God instructs us to do this, I don’t think it’s so that we back away from a fight, or let people get away with being undisciplined in how they treat others. I think it’s so that our response gets to the root cause of why they’re mistreating people in the first place. 

We’ve all heard the saying, "hurt people hurt people," and we see it play out again and again—when something is going wrong in someone’s life, their personal pain starts to bleed out into how they interact with others. 

We may not know the source of their hurt, but surely we can pray that God brings healing to it and gives us the grace to support them along their road to restoration.

written by LAURA BENNETT