Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. Luke 6:28 When Jesus calls us to love our enemies, we might wonder what that really means in practice. Surely, were not to get all warm and fuzzy when we think about those who seek to hurt us. Thats our cultures view of romantic love, not the kind of robust, challenging love envisioned by Jesus, a love that is more about action than about feelings. But what sorts of action embody a love for our enemies? Jesus gives several specific examples in Luke 6:27-36. In verse 28, for example, he says: Bless those who curse you. To bless, in this instance, means to speak well of someone or to speak kindly to that person. Perhaps there is someone in your place of work who is spreading false rumors about you in order to advance above you. How will you respond? According to Jesus, not by retaliating. Rather, you are to love this enemy by speaking well of them, even when their back is turned. Or, when you see them, you should address them politely and graciously. Jesus adds, Pray for those who hurt you. Praying for them involves asking good for them, seeking the Lords presence in their lives and transformation of their hearts. Prayer of this sort may sound easy enough in the abstract, but when you are really praying for real enemies, it can feel counterintuitive and even offensive. When someone hurts us, hurts our communities or our world...we pour out our grief to the Lord, and ask Him to comfort us, we pray for any loss, for family strength, for unity and for guidance to move on. We pray for our our enemies, Lord, we pray that You touch the hearts of those who cause hurt, bringing them to repentance. We ask that You reveal Your love and grace to them, so that their lives might be transformed. Praying for our enemies can truly be one of the hardest things we ever have to do. Loving our enemies is not easy. Nor is it easy to bless them or to pray for them. But this is the way of Jesus. Have you ever blessed someone who was speaking poorly of you? How did it feel? What happened inside of you when you did this? Have you ever prayed for those who hurt you? Are there people in your life right now who are seeking to harm you, for whom you need to pray? What keeps you from praying for your enemies? What helps you to do it? Let us pray together: Dear Lord, You know how hard it is to do what You ask in this verse. You know because You did it. You blessed those who cursed You, even as You suffered in agony on the cross. You asked the Father to forgive those who were torturing You. And You ask us to imitate You in this behavior. We must confess that part of us just doesnt want to do this. We want to ignore Your command, Lord. we want to pretend as if its not really for us. Yet Your word is clear. Help us to bless those who curse us and pray for our enemies. Yes, we ask for the grace to pray for global enemies, for those who would continue to want to hurt us and our fellow citizens. But we also ask You to help us pray for the little enemies in our lives, for people at work who get under our fingernails, for the politicians whose views drive us crazy, for the check-out clerk who didnt even say thank you. May our heart be trained so that our first instinct when someone wrongs us is to lay that person before You in prayer. Today, Lord, we also want to pray for our brothers and sisters who are confronting enemies who do far more than curse. We pray for those who are facing harassment, torture, and even the possibility of martyrdom because of their faith. Yes, we continue to pray for their deliverance, for justice and protection. But we also pray that You will give them the supernatural ability to love as You call us all to love, even to pray for those who hurt them. We pray in the name of Jesus, who lived what He commanded. Amen.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 16:24:41 +0000
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