I am grateful for this devotion this morning. I have someone who is challenging in my life, and I needed to be disciplined today about how I handle my attitude. 

We all have people in our lives with whom we struggle. We may not name them “enemies”–we might call them challenging or difficult. And then there are those within and outside our country’s borders who stand against our nation, our way of life, our communities and even the Church, many of whom do not even know us personally.

So how do we handle “enemies”? What do we do? Let us look to the one who was and is the most grace-filled–the one who died to save all, even his enemies. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches us the following law of love.

“You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you,love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.” (Matthew 5:43-48, Common English Bible)

Praying for our enemies or for those who harass us is powerful. Sometimes, it may help change those for whom we pray; but one thing is for sure–praying for our enemies will always help change us, the ones doing the praying. Through those prayers, God will soften our hearts and show us ways to love those challenging folks in our lives. Through those prayers, God will help us become more loving and caring to all, even to ourselves. Through those prayers, lives will be changed and wisdom will be gained. Through those prayers, we will continue to grow into the more complete, compassionate people God created us to be.

So may we love our enemies and pray for our enemies and show kindness to our enemies–not only to change them, but to change us. – Chris Holliday, Associate Minister, COR

It’s funny, because someone sent this note to me a few minutes ago, one that I also needed to hear:

We talked about his anger this weekend and that I thought watching so much [conservative news] was not healthy for him because it gets him so angry and full of hate for something he has NO CONTROL. He said that is what he prayed for in church, was to help him with his anger. I am trying to get him to see that talking about problems in the world, government, sports… just brings bad [thoughts and attitudes] that aren’t good for him or us. So we will see how he does but he seems to really be working on it.

Good lessons to start the week off right. I am grateful for lessons on Monday mornings.