But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. Luke 6:27-28

I know that the title of this blog, causes us to think of that person that you just have been targeted, hurt, rejected or persecuted by. When we are treated that way by someone it is so incredibly difficult to not harbor bitterness and anger and even unforgiveness. But we are told in Ephesians 4:32 that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven (“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”).

In fact there are a number of verses that tell us to bless our enemies and not harbor the kind of feelings that we often feel…”Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” – Romans 12:14; “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles” – Proverbs 24:17; “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” – 5:43-44.

The forgiveness of our enemies is what sets us apart and shows the world that we are children of God.

Now, this type of forgiveness is not going to be easy. Because our real enemy is a lurking. (“Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8).

Our real Enemies are not flesh and blood. (“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places.” – Ephesians 6:12)

It is never comfortable to discuss the enemy, satan, but if the Holy inerrant word of God says that he is real and that we need to be on the alert because he means us harm, we should be mindful that there is an enemy who means to cause us harm.

The enemy knows our weaknesses, our hurts and our insecurities. He will use those to deceive us and others, to cause division and to keep those who don’t know Christ from coming to know Him. Be alert for your enemy is prowling.

Those in our lives whom we would think of as our enemy are either our brothers and sisters in Christ or those who don’t know Jesus (but need to). There are no others.

If our brothers and sisters in Christ have caused those feelings of having been targeted, hurt, rejected or persecuted, we need to show them the love of Christ and heal the body of Christ. If those who do not know Christ have caused those feelings of having been targeted, hurt, rejected or persecuted, we need to show them the love of Christ because He is what they need.

Our Enemies are really the enemy. He is the one that deceives and lies to us so that we feel all those feelings of hurt, rejection and persecution. He is the one whose goal it is to rob God of glory, through our lack of forgiveness, to keep those who need Christ from seeing Him in us and to cause separation in the body of Christ so that we are less effective for Him.

I pray that today we would be isolated from the attacks of the enemy. I pray that we would have hearts of forgiveness and that the Lord would do a work in us that would cause us to see our enemies through His eyes, with love and forgiveness. And, that we would even pray for our enemies, because it will soften our hearts toward them.

If you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior and may even be thinking, “forgiveness sounds easy to you because you don’t know what I have been through.” You are right, but Jesus does and He can give you peace and healing and the ability to forgive even your enemies. Please go to our Life Preserver page and pray the prayer that is outlined there. Once you do, please reach out to me at admin@Forgiven-N-Loved.com and let me know so that I can pray for you and help you grow in your knowledge and relationship with Jesus. And, maybe even help you with forgiveness.

Luv ya!