Loving Your Enemies!

It’s Biblical right?
To love your enemies?
Jesus tells us in the book of Matthew when he literally says “Love your enemies”
I mean it doesn’t get much clearer than that!

I don’t know about you but I find that easier said than done!
Now, there are some enemies that are easier to love than others….but there’s always that one who pushes the boundaries!

That one who throws your past in your face every opportunity they get.
That one who won’t forgive.
That one who constantly gives you a hard time.
That one who sabotages you at every turn.
That one who sees nothing but your faults, no matter how hard you try.

Yep, there is always one!
But what do you do when that one is you!

I have found over the years that most of the time my worst enemy is actually myself!
I’m the one who is the least forgiving when I have messed up, I’m the one who berates myself over the smallest things and I am the last one to show kindness to myself.

But if I’m told to love my enemies, and if I’m my own worst enemy, then I’m commanded to love myself right?
I think it’s actually easier to love everyone except myself. I can see the good in people, even in those who persecute me, but trying to find it in myself, well that has been a whole other story.

It has been a journey for me for as long as I can remember, and one that God seems to be highlighting to me lately.
It’s hard when I look in the mirror and all I see are my faults and shortcomings. I skim over the good, even write it off and I hone in on the bad, or not yet mastered areas of my life.

This has been a skill (albeit not a great one to have) since I was a kid. I have made putting myself down an art form and can do it without a second thought.

But God and I are working on it! I am slowly beginning to see what God sees in me, because actually if I see myself any other way, I am calling God a liar.

If He says I am fearfully and wonderfully made, who am I to argue with that?
If He says I am above rubies, who am I to disagree?
If He says I am more precious than silver and a Daughter of the King, then what makes me so special, that there is one rule for everyone else, and then one for me that excludes me from His Love?

So I am working on loving my enemies…..especially the one I live with all day every day! The one God calls Beloved! The one He sent His Son to die for. And slowly but surely I will learn to love her.