A prayer from His heart

"love your enemies... 

  bless... do good... pray..."

Matthew 5:44

How many of you out there are familiar with that concept?  Loving your enemies?  Raise your hands. 

Yeah, that's what I thought.  So then you know it's a tricky one.  Matthew 5:46 says "If you love those who love you, what reward have you?"  But it's so much easier, right?  Loving those who love us?  I much prefer that.  I rock at that. 

Well recently, I put this more-difficult command into action.  There's a person in my life I've had a little trouble getting along with lately.  We had a bit of a disagreement a few weeks ago.  Although really, she didn't know it... She did something that frustrated me greatly, so in that sense we were disagreeing.  But I didn't say anything to her, so she didn't know we were disagreeing.  It was just me being disagreeable.  And frustrated.   And downright mad.  But I talked to a few friends, and the Apple of my Eye, and came to a place of acceptance about the whole thing.  People sometimes just are who they are.  And this person did what she did.  Nothing I could do about it.  So when we saw each other, I just pretended like nothing had ever been wrong, but I kept my distance a little.  Just a smile and a brief "how are you" before moving on. 

But I'd also been hearing about something difficult things going on in her life.  Financial problems, and some minor but persistent health problems with a family member.  So the last time I saw her, I asked her how things were going.  And then I said I'd like to pray for her.  So we stood there for a few minutes, and I prayed. 

Now, when I offered to pray, my intention was to pray for those people in her life that struggling, but when I actually started praying, I prayed for her.  I prayed that He would give her strength as she encouraged and blessed her struggling family members.  I prayed that she would have joy, and peace in all God was doing in her life.  And I thanked God for her friendship. 

I was going to be obedient to Him, by praying with her.  But I prayed for her.   And that was all Him.   Because the commandment to love those who are unlovable can only be done through Him. 

~ "If you forgive men their trespasses, 

  your heavenly Father will also forgive you" ~

Matthew 6:14