Quick Daily Devotions: February 26, 2021
Quick Daily Devotions, February 26, 2021: People commonly combine the Old Testament command to “love your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:18) with a vengeful phrase: “. . . and hate your enemy. “People generally regarded anyone from another nation as their enemy. In this passage, Jesus overturns a common saying of that day. "I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." - Matthew 5:44
And they were probably amazed to hear Jesus say, "I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." What is radical in Jesus' request is that it does not aim only at a "peaceful coexistence", "live and let live" or "let the past be past". Command a proactive and practical love. We are commanded to love our enemies and to seek the best for them, not just to leave ourselves alone.
An important part of loving our enemies, Jesus says, includes praying for them. Frankly, it is impossible to continue to hate someone if we pray for their good. Praying for our enemies helps us see them as God sees them. It helps us to start taking care of their needs and treating them like a neighbor.
Quick Daily Devotions, February 26, 2021: Unfortunately, we all have antagonists of one kind or another. Jesus himself calls us to love those people and to pray for them and for their well-being. After all, that's what it did for us. "While we were enemies of God, we were reconciled with him through the death of his Son" (Romans 5:10). Prayer: Father, we were your enemies, but now, in Jesus, we are your children. Help us pray and love our enemies. Amen.
Lord Jesus, you have come to heal wounded and troubled hearts: I beg you to heal the traumas that cause disturbances in my heart. I pray you, in particular, to heal those who cause sin. I ask you to come into my life, to heal me from the psychic traumas that hit me at an early age and from those wounds that have caused them throughout my life. Lord Jesus, you know my problems, I place them all in your heart as a Good Shepherd. Please, by virtue of that great open wound in your heart, to heal the little wounds that are in mine. Heal the wounds of my memories, so that nothing that has happened to me makes me remain in pain, in anguish, in worry.