Who are My Enemies?

~~~ Deuteronomy 26:16-19 ~~~ Psalm 119 ~~~ Matthew 5:43-48

...today the LORD is making this agreement with you:

you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you...

Now is the acceptable time for us to renew

 our agreement with the Lord.

God gave his decrees to Moses and Moses 

passed them on to us.

Moses agreed on our behalf to keep these 

commandments of the Lord God.

Thus we too are in agreement...we will keep 

these same commandments.

Blessed are they who observe his decrees,

who seek him with all their heart.

Now is a very acceptable time for us to take inventory of our heart.

How well are we keeping up our end of the agreement?

But I say to you, love your enemies,

and pray for those who persecute you,

that you may be children of your heavenly Father...

In our society today I find it challenging to love my enemies.

First of all who are my enemies?

Are they the people we see on the news?

Are they the people who have different values than we have?

Are they the ones who pray to a different God.

How can we determine just who our enemies are?

Maybe we can pray for those who persecute 

our fellow Christians across the globe.

Is that what God means?

I cannot honestly say 

anyone is personally persecuting me? 

God wants us to seek out those 

who are difficult to love.

Those who want to be confrontational

 when it comes to beliefs.

God wants us to love those who constantly 

push us away whenever we even mention God.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

To be perfect we have to see as God sees.

To be perfect means we must be blind to all things

 that appear to be contrary to what we believe.

We cannot take sides...

We cannot cast blame...

We can only be steadfast in our beliefs ...

We must look upon those who would persecute us 

with eyes of love and compassion.

The eyes of love and compassion 

that can only come from God himself.

We can only be perfect if we have the eyes and heart of God.

Blessed in times of persecution.

To be perfect is to love our enemy.

~~~ Peace ~~~