A Different Perspective
Good Morning,
On the cross, Jesus prayed, “…Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” and Stephen prayed, “Lord, Lay not this sin to their charge.” (Acts 7:60) Later, we read of Paul speaking of those who abandoned him in his troubles, and he said, “I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.” (2 Timothy 4:16)
When we consider love, it is not love of friends and family that is so amazing, but love of those who hurt us.
Matthew 5:44 “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
We have all read or heard about Christ’s instruction to “turn the other cheek,” and most of us wonder about that one.
While reading in Psalms, I see David often praying for his enemies to be caught, trapped, confused, and even killed, but as we look more into the life of David, we do not see those emotions come out in his actions. David sparred the life of his enemy Saul twice.
Speaking of his enemies, David wrote;
Psalm 35:13 “But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.”
vs. 14 “I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.”
The world hates because they do not have the love of God. The politicians live by deceit and graft because they never met the One Who is just and pure. The media twists and corrupts information to sell a story and to make a buck; they do so because they never learned righteousness and honor from the altogether Lovely One. Believers who walk with the Lord and live in His Book view life differently. To forgive, to have mercy, and to wish well to those who wish them evil are all natural reactions that a child of God can experience.
When one is born into the family of the One Who “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,” we look at the miserable world around us with eyes of compassion. For this reason, for centuries, believers have walked away from comfort and friends to tell the dying and evil world of the loving Saviour. By looking back a few hundred years, we will find that most missionaries had very short ministries (an average of only five to seven years); travel, disease, or evil men often took their lives. Most missionaries never returned home and died on the field; missionaries still went with the knowledge that this was a real possiblity. There is a love and compassion in the heart of that anyone who walks with God, and that causes him to view life differently. The more vile the world, the more we realize how very lost and broken this world is. Like starving children or dying prisoners of war, we see this evil world as prison of lies that hurts people who are starving for truth and honor.
We do think differently, and the closer we are to the Almighty, the more we will exhibit tenderness, even to those who harm us. Everything looks differently through a Spirit-filled heart.
Pastor