Love Even Your Enemy

God calls us to hold no violence in our hearts. We are told to love another as we love ourselves, and to love even your enemy.

This is a hard one. When someone hurts us, how can we love them? When they do the most violent of things that go against our very human nature, how then do we love them?

If we thought forgiving our enemy, or those who hurt us, was hard, imagine how much harder it is to love them. Someone who harms our child, or who murders another, immediately becomes our enemy. Our hearts harden against them, and yet Jesus calls us to not only forgive them, but to love them.

When I had to forgive the person who sold drugs to my son and had him sell them to others, it was difficult. I had to ask God for help. This person turned my son into an addict. How do you forgive that? The answer is this. It’s very hard, and yet very easy at the same time. Our pain, turned to anger, is what makes it hard; faith makes it easier. God showed me that at an earlier point in time someone harmed this man who I despised, just as he hurt my son. I saw who he was before he became corrupt, so I began praying for him to be healed. It was in that moment that I could forgive him, and with the forgiving came peace. I can think of him and not be hurt or angered. What I thought was impossible, God made possible. It doesn’t mean he changed his ways, or he even cared that I forgave him. What it means is that I showed love and compassion instead of hatred by forgiving him.

It is the same with loving our enemy. When we love someone, we ask God to help them; to heal the wounds that turned them away from the light. We pray that light is restored to them, and they find God once more.

An act of kindness towards a stranger is an act of love. Praying for your enemy is an act of love. The prayer holds hope. Hope that what turned them from the light can be reversed. A hope born only in faith; a faith engrained with a love that is woven into the very fabric of each of us.

If you think it is impossible, look to the cross. That is where you find true love for an enemy. In His love for us, Jesus asked that we be forgiven so that we may spend eternity with Him. If He can forgive and love those who called for his crucifixion, for those who drove nails into his arms and legs, and for those who pierced and beat him, how could we not at least try?

The path to loving an enemy starts with forgiveness. If you struggle, ask God to help you and start there. Begin praying for your own healing, and ask for healing for the other, that they may be loosed from the grips of the enemy, and returned to Him. Start there and then move on to forgiveness.

Forgiving is an act of love. When you can forgive, then you can start loving more. Pray for the complete healing of the other person. We are all spiritual sisters and brothers, and until we can heal and stop hurting, the violence in this world will continue.

Imagine how the enemy of all enemies will cringe and howl if we all start praying for our enemies, asking God to restore them to the light. The one who fell and calls others to fall with him into darkness will be defeated by love, not hatred. He feeds on hatred, encouraging it, taking pleasure as lust, anger, and hatred spread.

Pray for those who have fallen, and turned towards the shadows. Love them despite their faults and choices. They are a creation of God who has wandered away from the light and into darkness.

To love is easy. To love everyone, even your enemy, is the hardest thing of all that is asked us, but God asks no less of us than he did for His son. The choice is yours always, but it is your will or His. There is no in between.

Free inspirational or motivational posts can be found on the inspirational page of Leslie’s website.