Love Your Neighbors
“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? A warrior's sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree! Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!”
Psalms 120:1-7 ESV
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS
How do you love your neighbors when your neighbors don’t love you or worse yet they might even hate you? Well if your human, pretty much all your instincts tell you to go ahead and engage the enemy, wage war and fight back so that you can claim victory.
That’s a great tactic if your objective is to kill your neighbor and eliminate the perceived human enemy. The problem is that the enemy were fighting against is sin and there is only oneway to claim victory over sin, Jesus. When we start loving our neighbors who hate us into a possible Jesus encounter, that is when we have a true opportunity to see victory claimed.
We have a neighbor who for whatever reason doesn’t like us and has caused our lives to be quite troublesome. She has actually spread lies about me to other neighbors trying to get them to side with her. So when I read this passage I thought, ya, I know how you feel...I do everything to not fight her, trying to be kind and respectful to her. Should be good enough right?
Then someone asked me at MC one night if I ever pray for her...ouch. The honest (but very wrong) answer was no, not really. I don’t really want to pray for her. My prayers in this battle have always been for me to have strength and patience so I can win the battle... maybe a prayer for her to move and go away.
Boy have I been missing the mark on this one. She’s not the enemy, it’s sin and I need to pray for her to meet Jesus in a real way because it’s only through Jesus that we get to see victory over sin.
Who are you battling with right now? Stop fighting, start praying and loving your enemy and watch Jesus claim the victory.
Psalms 120:1-7 ESV
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS
How do you love your neighbors when your neighbors don’t love you or worse yet they might even hate you? Well if your human, pretty much all your instincts tell you to go ahead and engage the enemy, wage war and fight back so that you can claim victory.
That’s a great tactic if your objective is to kill your neighbor and eliminate the perceived human enemy. The problem is that the enemy were fighting against is sin and there is only oneway to claim victory over sin, Jesus. When we start loving our neighbors who hate us into a possible Jesus encounter, that is when we have a true opportunity to see victory claimed.
We have a neighbor who for whatever reason doesn’t like us and has caused our lives to be quite troublesome. She has actually spread lies about me to other neighbors trying to get them to side with her. So when I read this passage I thought, ya, I know how you feel...I do everything to not fight her, trying to be kind and respectful to her. Should be good enough right?
Then someone asked me at MC one night if I ever pray for her...ouch. The honest (but very wrong) answer was no, not really. I don’t really want to pray for her. My prayers in this battle have always been for me to have strength and patience so I can win the battle... maybe a prayer for her to move and go away.
Boy have I been missing the mark on this one. She’s not the enemy, it’s sin and I need to pray for her to meet Jesus in a real way because it’s only through Jesus that we get to see victory over sin.
Who are you battling with right now? Stop fighting, start praying and loving your enemy and watch Jesus claim the victory.
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