KEEP HATING UR ENEMIES, WHILE GOD KEEPS
BLESSING UR ENEMIES!
A couple of years ago I went to a church with a friend. I had just moved to that state and I had no idea which church to worship at, but since my friend is a member of a church I decided to go with her to her church. When it was time to pray, the pastor said he has some few prayer points and I looked towards the pulpit and saw some pieces of paper the pastor placed on the pulpit stand. I could see about 4 pages. My thinking was probably the pastor will preach after the prayer, that, it might be the pastor's sermon. When we started the prayer, the prayer lasted for one good hour, I had to sit down at some point, as I was heavily pregnant and I could not stand that long . The first prayer point was "all my enemies that do not want me to progress in life, die, die, die. Another prayer point was something similar to the first and all the rest of the prayer was about enemies this and enemies that and die and die, and I thought to myself, why are these people praying that their enemies should die? I asked myself, is it not a good thing for one's enemy to die? I said to myself, NO, I do not want my enemies to die even the bible said we should pray and bless our enemies. I went to the church the following Sunday and the prayer was still the same. The third Sunday my friend asked me if I would like to go to church and I said to her, NO. She asked me why because she knew I was OK. I do not have anywhere to go, and I asked her "Why does your church always pray for their enemies to die?" She asked me, "Do you not want your enemies to die?" I said to her, "No", and I quoted the bible to her but she disagreed with me. I even explained to her that anyone can be your enemy. Your very close friend can later become your enemy. I said to her, "I do not like the way the church members pray and I do not want to go because of the way the church congregation prays."
A few years later, I met someone that goes to the same type of church and I asked him why the church always prays for their enemies to die and he explained to me that, "It is not the person that they want dead but the bad spirit in the person's mind that is making the person behave in a bad way", and I said to him , "THANK U! I now understand." In life, a lot of people do things, just because;my friend is doing it, just because, I like it, and people are doing it. Also, quite a large number of people go to church without knowing the church doctrines and instead of them to ask they just follow along.
When a lot of people are offended by someone, their first thinking is that the person should leave the world for them. They just want the person dead by all means and some people want the person to experience pains by wishing that something bad should happen to them. Don't get me wrong here, I am not saying that we should not feel bad when someone offends us. Of course, we are human and we should feel bad, but not like wishing them dead or thinking that bad things should happen to the person. We need to do it the way God instructed us in the bible. The bible says in LUKE 6:27 - 28 27But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
Lately on facebook, some people will post a video cursing some people out, and saying to the whole world that they know secrets about Mr. A or Mrs. B, and if Mr. A or Mrs. B is not careful, they will expose him or her to the whole world. Please tell me, is there anyone in this world without a secret in their closet or is there anyone without a past? No, not one single person.
Did you know that when you pray for you enemy, you are actually praying for yourself.
A lot of people are so full of hatred towards their fellow human beings that some find it so hard to pray for them. God will place your enemy in a bigger and better position if you cease to obey God's instructions. In my view, an example is the last week US presidential election. Many people hate Donald Trump, (not excluding myself), to the extent that, a thought came to my mind two weeks before the election that Donald Trump might win, and I said to myself just the way Jesus said to Satan " Get thee behind me" lol. I just did not listen to the voice and I said how could God use someone like Donald Trump to be the next US President. Even for contesting to be the next US President, most people in their widest dream never thought that he would win the election. All because they do not like him. Well, are we to blame some people for not liking him? No, Donald Trump did not present himself as a likable person, going from some of the things he did in the past. The way he carried himself during the debate and also what he said he in the video (grab them by the P) these are enough reason to hate someone when you look at it in human view, but if you look at it in God's view, God does not and He will not hate some like that. It could be because of the hatred that people have towards him that God favored him by allowing him to carry the largest votes, just to teach a lot of people or to let people know that it is good to love others in spite of their shortcomings.
God wants us to always pray for people no matter how much they've hurt us, and that is why the Bible gave us an illustration about Jesus Christ when Jesus was about to breathe His last breath. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)
God looks at inward appearance, man looks at outward appearance. Thinking about that I thought to myself that, you know, Donald Trump might be a good person in God's eyes and I decided to google about Donald Trump and I was surprised at some of the good deeds he has done for a lot of people, which the world (Media) is not telling us.
Trump has touched the lives of others in so many ways;
The time he gave sanctuary to Grammy Award-winning singer Jennifer Hudson after three of her family members were murdered:
When Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were gunned down in Chicago, she put everything on hold for a while. She stayed at Trump Tower to grieve, Donald didn't charge her a dime and also provided security for her and a few of her family members.
Airlines wouldn't accommodate a boy who had serious medical issues, so Trump offered his jet to help:
Three-year-old Andrew Ten needed to go to New York to receive some special medical attention. But there was one big problem: The airlines refused to board him because Ten required several different pieces of medical equipment on the flight. Ten's parents put in a call to Trump, who then dispatched his private jet to meet their pressing needs.
Ten's father said of Trump:
"He is a good man. He has three children of his own and he knows what being a parent is all about.”
He helped save a family's working farm that was going into foreclosure:
In 1986, Annabell Hill was in danger of losing her family farm. On top of that, her husband had just committed suicide hoping that his life insurance policy would cover the remaining balance that they owed. When Trump saw her tragic story, he decided to do something about it.
According to the New York Times:
Donald Trump, the New York real estate tycoon, helped prevent foreclosure today on a family farm whose owner had committed suicide to try to save his land.
Mrs. Hill proposed to bank officials that the land be sold privately so she could keep some of the 705 acres. Parts of the farm have been in the Hill family for three generations.
What Trump did for a bus driver who helped save a woman from jumping off a bridge:
Darnell Barton was driving his bus across a bridge when he spotted a woman on the other side of railing, staring down at the traffic below. Barton stopped the bus and approached the woman. After one of his passengers explained they didn't want to “see someone die,” he managed to put his arm around her and she agreed to come to the other side of the bridge.
After hearing about what Barton did, The Donald sent him ten thousand dollars.
Trump said:
"I thought that was so beautiful to see. I think he is a great guy with an amazing heart and I said that man should be rewarded.
Clearly, Donald Trump isn't just a good businessman, he's a Good Samaritan, too.
In life, we have to learn to forgive others in order to release our blessings.
- Stay humble at all times
- your qualification will be taken to the dumpster once you leave this earth, only your deeds will go with you
- Your private jets will be taken over by someone else
- your 52 bedrooms mansion house, will be occupied by someone else
- A friend you called ur enemy yesterday, God can use him or her today to help you.
“I think that hate is a feeling that can only exist where there is no understanding.”
― Tennessee Williams, Sweet Bird of Youth
Facts about your enemies:
- Greet them. Greet your enemies.
- Disarm them. That’s what you do when you turn the other cheek or go the second mile. You disarm them by doing the very thing they least expect.
- Do Good to Them. It’s fascinating that both times in this passage when Jesus says, “Love your enemies,” he follows it immediately by saying, “Do good to them,” so that we won’t miss the point. Doing good to your enemies means seeing beyond your pain and their meanness to their humanity. It means seeing them as people made in the image of God and understanding that there is something twisted inside that causes them to do what they do. “Doing good” means that you do what will promote their healing despite the way they have treated you. The idea is, you make the first move. You send the e-mail. You pick up the phone. You make the contact. You bridge the gap. You set up the appointment.
- Refuse to speak evil of them. That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “Bless those who curse you.” It means you refuse to think evil thoughts and you refuse to speak evil words against those who have wronged you. Proverbs has a great deal to say about the power of words. “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21 NIV). Every time we open our mouth, life or death comes out.
- Thank God for them. If you have an honest-to-goodness enemy, you should frame their picture and thank God for them every day. If you believe in the sovereignty of God, you must believe that your enemy is sent to you by God’s design and with God’s approval. Your enemy could not torment you apart from God’s permission. Behind your enemy stands the hand of God. And God would never permit it if he did not intend to bring something good out of it. You should take a picture of your enemy, frame it, put it where you can see it, and thank God for your enemy every time you look at the picture.
- Pray for them. But what if you hate the person you are praying for? Tell that to the Lord. He won’t be surprised. Then say something like this, “Lord, I hate this person, but you already know that. I ask you to love this person through me because I can’t do it in my own power. I ask you for a love I don’t have and can’t begin to produce.” God will not turn you away when you come with an honest heart, admitting you need his love to flow through you.
- Ask God to bless them. Here’s a simple way to do that. When faced with someone who has mistreated you, ask God to do for them what you want God to do for you. Seek the blessing for them that you want God to do for you. Think of it this way: The greater the hurt, the greater the potential blessing that will come when we totally forgive and by God’s grace, bless those who curse us.
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