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Praying for My Enemy
Until recently, I had never connected my identity as a daughter of God with loving my enemy. I don’t know about anyone else, but this instruction from Jesus to love those who spitefully misuse us is painful on so many levels. After all, an enemy is one who has hurt or is currently harming us intentionally. How do we deal with that, and why would we even want to? I never thought I would end up with so many enemies. When the occasional bully surfaced as a child, I desperately wished they were friends. I saw their mistreatment of me as exposing some flaw in me. The girl who pushed…
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How to Love Your Enemies: No Faking Allowed
One of the biggest surprises that adult life has brought me is the fact that I have enemies. I’m not talking about the devil or even people who find me annoying. I am talking about bona fide enemies who actively wish me harm or who for reasons of their own, hate me. Another surprise that adult life brought my way is how easy it is to hate them back. Hatred is a bleak desert of an emotion. And it pretty much always leads to despair. After all, no life springs forth from the kind of hatred one feels towards someone similarly inclined towards oneself. And because we know that we…