sermon topic::: Dealing with the enemy we like............Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7). A few days ago a friend sent me an email that contained a reading called “Enemies as Emissaries of God’s Grace.” Rather than quote the entire piece, let me highlight a few things that caught my eye: If I keep a heavenly perspective and believe Romans 8:28, enemies are not really enemies… they are some of the best friends I have. What is sometimes meant by some to hurt me actually helps bring about a work of grace in me that wouldn’t take place any other way. When a supposed enemy attacks, God exposes the sinful blind spots that lie hidden in my heart. When friends extol my good virtues and praise me, I appreciate their expressions of love, but it is more important that I be told the truth especially when it will wound me deeply (Proverbs 27:6). Otherwise I will not work to become more like Christ and the blind spots I have will grow and further infect my soul. The Healing Power of Forgiveness When we learn to forgive in the way God - the Supreme Forgiver - forgives, then well know true freedom, peace, and emotional healing Get more details There are lessons I must learn that can only be learned in the crucible of adversity, pain, and difficulty. And God uses those perceived as enemies to expose the things that otherwise would never be seen, much less understood or removed from my life. And so what some might call an enemy is really my best friend, a helper, an emissary from God for my good! For the way to Christlikeness is the cross, and the navigator that God uses to direct me there are those who some might call enemies. Without people doing what they think will hurt or destroy me, I would never find the way to being more like Jesus. They are a required part of becoming holy. And because of that I must see them as my best friends! There is much more to the reading, but these excerpts give the flavor of the whole. The whole emphasis strikes me a profoundly biblical, especially if you believe in the sovereignty of God over all the circumstances of life. It is not enough to simply say we believe that God has a purpose in everything that happens to us. That much is true, but this reading suggests (with good biblical support) that God always has a beneficial purpose, though we often to do not see it clearly. With that in mind, we turn to the very practical question of how we are to respond to those who hurt us deeply. Jesus said, “Love your enemies” (Luke 6:27). Easier said than done, especially when you are in the middle of an ugly conflict. In the particular case in Jeremiah 29, the Jews had been forcibly deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. Many of their leaders had been killed, and many had been marched away in shackles. The Babylonians were quite ruthless in their treatment of their enemies. And now the Jews were in exile for 70 years, which meant (at least for the older folks) that most of them would never return home again. What does it mean to love the people who have ruined everything you hold dear? How do you pray for someone you despise? How do you seek the good of people you wish were dead? How do you survive in a foreign land where everything you believe is ridiculed? Why would you seek their prosperity after what they did to you?
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:32:03 +0000