Loving and Praying For Your Enemies

A month or so ago, I decided that I wanted to read the gospels in some type of chronological order - so, initially, I started to try and do it myself - but that was really hard to do! I was talking with my mom about it and she said that she had a chronological Bible that she could let me borrow! It is a Bible that has put the Old and New Testament in - you guessed it - chronological order! It was an answer to my prayers! (I actually knew that she had one, but had initially forgotten about it!)

The Bible is broken down so that you can read through the Bible in one year. While reading in the Bible, I have found that I don't always read through a whole day's worth of scripture, but I read a passage and have found that I am meditating on it more - I figure for me, at this point in my life - the quality of reading is worth more than quantity.

So, today I was reading in Matthew 5:21-48 and the Lord was definitely speaking to me. It was about not holding on to anger - to go and reconcile with your brother before presenting an offering to the Lord. One thing that I struggled with a little bit was - well, what if they do not accept what you are saying and they are choosing to not forgive you, believe you, etc. I felt that the Lord was then speaking to me and telling me that it is the posture of my heart that counts. Later on in that chapter, the Lord tells us that we are to pray for our enemies - and I felt that the Lord was asking me - are you praying for people that are not so nice to you? If they choose not to forgive you, you still need to forgive them and then pray for them.

I was convicted. I have to admit that I have not been praying for a specific situation on a daily basis, but instead I chose to not think about it. Well, that is NOT what the Lord has told us to do. So, I now need to listen to the Lord and PRAY! There is power in prayer and I need to grab a hold of that in this situation.

I have really been enjoying reading the gospels - It is neat (for lack of a better word) to read the words that Jesus spoke - and what He is still speaking into my life.