Praise the Lord for another very fruitful week. For this week I meditate a lot on the writings of a German pastor who died of martyrdom in the Second World War. He wrote many books. One of the most famous ones is “The Cost of Discipleship”. He talked about cheap grace and costly grace and how to be a disciple of Jesus. I used his material to preach a few sermons quite a few years ago and I was impacted by what he taught based very much on the sermon of the mount. I would like to share with you my thoughts on Jesus’ teaching of how to love your enemies and pray for them. I pray that you will be blessed by my sharing.
Eat Into My Soul
I develop very personal relationship with Jesus through loving my enemies by praying for them. As a result of Jesus such teaching, I become very sensitive towards my own feelings towards other people. My slightest dislike, hatred, jealousy, unforgiveness, complain, uncomfortable feeling, condemnation, negative thought, etc about someone, be it my wife, children, or anybody out there, I go to dialogue with Jesus in my heart about the reason(s) for it. I do not want to allow those feelings to remain because they “eat” into my soul, they try to isolate me from focusing on Jesus teaching especially on the sermon on the mount. I always use sermon on the mount in Matthew to guide me in my relationship with people and God.
Dialogue With Jesus
In my dialogue with Jesus, I always ask Jesus these questions: Why do I have such feelings? Why I am hurt by it? How should I overcome such feeling? Am I worried by it; disturbed; threatened? Every time I give a fleshly response like a self-centred, selfish, my personal interest, pride, face, personal desire and glory, any sinful thought or attitude answer; the spirit of Jesus will always alert me of my fleshly desires. He directed me back to His word on the sermon of mount and in the Bible. As I allow His word to be the final authority of my life, I choose to obey His word in my mind, my conscious and my being, I always experience peace, closeness with Jesus, reconciliation with people, seeing people from God’s perspective of love, and accepting them as imperfects.
I Make No Enemies
After I go to Jesus to deal with all the negative feelings in my mind and conclude by obeying His words and after that, I always pray to forgive or bless the other person. It is so powerful. I make no enemies. I can love them with my imperfect love. This is how I do it. I accept them as God’s children (both Christians and non Christians). How can I dislike, hate, hurt, condemn God’s children whom He loved so much by dying a sacrificial death on the cross? I accept them as imperfect people. I accept them as people who have their strengths and weaknesses. I am challenged by Jesus to focus on their strengths rather than weaknesses. I am also challenged by Jesus to be understanding towards them. May be he behaves like that because he does not have good sleep last night; he has a quarrel with his wife; he is frustrated at work; he is frustrated at work; he is sick; his children give him trouble; there is misunderstanding or miscommunication somewhere, etc. These understandings help me to give people all the space to make mistakes or even to sin against me. I pray that I turn all of them into opportunities for me to help them to fear and honour Jesus.
I Love People As He Or She Is
What do I get as a result of loving my enemies and praying for them? First and foremost, I receive the joy of the Lord; I live peacefully and harmoniously with anybody out there; I can face Jesus’ questions and I have no guilt and shame in my heart; I felt accepted by Jesus all the time; I feel I am a strong disciple of Jesus; I love people as he or she is and I love all nations, races and tribes. This helps me to do a lot of missions.
Will you join me to love your enemies and pray for them?
A faithful disciple of Jesus,
Pastor Law Hui Seng
(27th Feb, 2011, KK)
Posted By Teresa Han
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