Loving My Enemy

We all know what the Bible says about loving our enemies. And we can all agree that can be a challenge. But I have to say that in my life I've been pretty blessed to have very few people I would place in this category. However, a person has more recently come into my life who I suddenly realized fits quite well into this category. And I was challenged about this in a very real way.

I was praying hard the other night, in a rare alone moment, for a specific person in my life who I care about very deeply. Suddenly, God placed this other person who I do not care for on my heart and nudged me. What about this other person? This person needs love, too. This person needs prayer, too. But God, I just want this other person to GO AWAY! Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Pout. I don' wanna'. But then I surrendered to the Spirit's leading and began to pray for this person. I don't need to share what I prayed about because that's specific to this person who needs to remain anonymous.

I'm not sharing this because I want you to think well of me. I'm sharing this because it was a very real, very cool experience. I was serious before, when I said I never felt like I had real enemies. And I never felt the struggle of needing to love these non-existent enemies. And a struggle this is. I can't say I showed love to this person yet. But I did pray, and I think I did so with sincerity. Because as I thought and prayed, I realized that what God wants in this situation is really better than what I desire. So I pray that His will be done, in every aspect of the situation, in every aspect of my enemy's life and in our relationship. There are several possible outcomes to this, and several different ways in which God could be glorified. There's probably one God would like most of all, if I could guess, and honestly, it's my least favorite. But I think if God can make that option work out, then this person wouldn't really be my enemy anymore and God really would be glorified.

I'll just keep praying, even for my enemy, and God... the ball's in your court. To you be the glory!