Enemies No More

To love is easy, but loving your enemy is a different story. When we say enemy, those are the people who oppose you, persecute you and keep on saying things against you or for some that we consider enemy simply because we don't like them. Be it from your relatives, classmates, from organization you are in, in a workplace or it could be the person you just envied about. Did you ever had the feeling of wanting to slap their face even just seeing them from the distance? Or that all your blood goes to your head just hearing that person's voice? If does, you are not alone. I just remembered a fat and gay office mate I had who brag things about me and could really ruined my days while working with him. Of course, being a person who hate attention I was just silent at the corner but what he didn't know is that I already imagining him being crucified upside down or sometimes while he's sitting on his swivel chair I'm thinking of grabbing the back of his chair and to knock him off the ground! But again, that was just imagination. Too mean, right? But to be honest, I hated him. Now let me just ask you this, how do you feel whenever you are thinking of negative acts to others or revenge? Does it brings peace in our hearts or it just loads more angriness and makes it heavy? If you'll ask me, based on my experience I will choose the latter. Second of the greatest command in the bible is to love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matt. 22:39) and along with that command is God is asking us to love our enemy (Matt. 5:44). Maybe you would ask God if He is crazy, but come to think of it, does our enemy cares if we are mad at them? Would be beating them in the ass could help us grow spiritually? I don't think so. Investing any negative emotion to someone who are not really worth it just only causing you to sin. Instead of putting hatred into your heart why don't you just look for reasons to love that person?

♥ Remind ourselves that we are first loved by God (1 John 4:19). As God being the author of love and made us feel we are loved we don't have the right to withhold it from other people.

♥ We have to know that saying 'I love you' to God is saying the same thing to our enemies. We cannot love who is unseen if we cannot love who we has seen (1 John 4:20). It may not be the easiest command but if we really love God it will never be an issue.

No one is perfect, we all have flaws, we all have sinned but still we are accepted. While you are asking your enemy, "Why are you like that?!" and keep on looking for things that are unacceptable from them... as what James Bryan Smith once said, try to take the opposite route and ask this.. "What is the good I can find in you so that I can accept you?" or "What wonderful qualities I can find in you so that I can value you?" Let's look at them as how God sees them and embraced them in a way we are embraced by God.