Love Your Enemies

When Jesus started his ministry, one of his greatest commandments came from the abolishment of the old covenant and the establishment of the new: 

“You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 5:43-44, 46 NASB)

Every time I read this passage, I feel a heaviness on my heart...

Unforgiveness has had a grip on me for so long. 

As crazy as it sounds, I actually have a “list of unforgiveness” in the back of my prayer journal. It’s a list of every person in my life, since I was a child, that I still haven’t forgiven. I wrote the list because I want to make a genuine change in my life, so every morning I pray for every single name on my list. 

As I prayed over my list this morning, for half a second, I felt that as though it was too impossible. Those wounds were too deep to be healed. Immediately God reminded me of Jesus’s reaction on the Cross, after he’d been tortured, crucified, and brutally abused: 

“But Jesus was saying, ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’” (Luke 3:34, NASB). 

If there was any single person who had reason not to forgive, it was Jesus. If there was any person who had reason to curse those who hurt him, it was the Son of God. Yet instead, he chose to intercede for those who were abusing him.

My chains of bitterness are so strong. There are people who have abused me and betrayed me. There are people and institutions that have oppressed and rejected me simply because of my desire to go into leadership ministry as a woman. Some of the hurts are deep, and some of them are ridiculous, but no matter the wound, I have a direct command: 

Love my enemies, and pray for those who persecute me. 

If picking up my Cross and following Jesus means modeling my life after him, then I need to do what he did on that Tree. So every morning, this is what I pray: 

Lord, I have carried these people in a backpack, heavy like rocks, for too long. So today, I lay each of these people at the foot of Your throne. I lay down all of these rocks of bitterness, and I ask that you would cast them into the sea of glass that sits before You. Today, I choose forgiveness.

I pray this prayer every morning. These chains are so strong, 

but my God is stronger. 

Forgiving my enemies and praying for those who have wounded me does not diminish what they have done, but it does free me to love deeply and without restraint. If you are struggling in these chains of bondage, know that you are not alone. Know that forgiveness does not mean justification. Forgiveness is a gift to free you. 

These chains can be broken because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross. You are not alone, and you are not without hope! I promise you: there are far better things ahead than anything you could ever leave behind (C.S. Lewis).