LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Matthew 5:44-45
44 But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. (WEB)

Our Heavenly Father is the kindest, most loving Person in the universe. There is not one person on the planet that He does not love with all His heart. In His goodness, He causes the sun to rise on both the good and the bad. In His mercy, He sends rain to water the earth for those who are just and those who are unjust.

It is difficult for us to imagine the immeasurable vastness of the love of God. How can He love those who hate him? While this concept is difficult for us to grasp in our own human understanding, the more that we are filled with His love, the more we will be able to comprehend it.

In today's Bible passage, Jesus tells us that it is possible for us to love our enemies because we have the love of our Heavenly Dad in our heart. The more that His love seeps into every corner of our being, the more we will be conformed into the image of Jesus who is the exact representation of our Father (Hebrews 1:3).

My prayer today is that the love of God would wash over all of us so that we would have the grace and the love to be able to extend that same gift to others... even if they don't deserve it. And by doing so, we will just be like our Dad.

Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (WEB)