Love Your Enemies ~ Forgive ~ And Pray For Them!When you love your enemies it does more good than to allow anger to rule you! NeedEncouragement.com

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Oh, how important it is to love your enemies! I know it may seem difficult and even impossible at times, but trust me when I say that there is so much power in choosing to love those who mistreat us. When we respond with anger or hatred towards someone who has wronged us, what good does that do? It only adds fuel to the fire and creates more hurt and pain. But when we choose to show love instead – whether through kind words, forgiveness, or prayer – something beautiful happens. We open up the door for healing, reconciliation, and transformation.

And isn’t that what we all want deep down inside? To live in a world where people treat each other with kindness and respect? So let’s take Martin Luther King Jr.’s wise words to heart and be willing to be agents of change by loving our enemies. I like what Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” Who knows? Maybe one day they will become our friends! If each of us did our part in loving our enemies, this world would be a much better place!  ~ Bill Greguska 

Matthew 5:43-44 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

How To Love Someone You Don’t Like?


 

 

 

God’s Love!

God’s kind of love is an action, not a feeling. Now, that really is good news, because it means that we can love people toward whom we do not necessarily have good feelings. You can love people toward whom you have no feelings at all. Since love is an action, you can obey God’s command to love everyone.

First Corinthians 13 is a good place to look for a practical description of love. A few of these are:

Patience: When you act with patience toward someone, you are loving them. Keep in mind that love is not a feeling, so we don’t have to feel patient. Can you remember acting with patience even when you did not feel patient? That is agape love.

Kindness: When you feel like saying something sarcastic or cutting or angry, but instead you say something kind, that is a love action.

Not Jealous: When you refuse to behave jealously or possessively, you are showing love.

Has Good Manners: Just plain courtesy is a love action. How often we forget good manners, like not interrupting others when they’re talking, letting others go ahead of us, etc. Those are love actions.

Unselfish: Agape love acts in an unselfish manner, without pursuing selfish advantage or trampling over others in trying to get where you want to get. Remember, you don’t have to feel unselfish, you only have to act unselfish.

Endurance: When other people have given up and left, agape love will still be there, hanging in with someone. It will endure all things. It will keep listening to someone, even when you think you cannot listen to another word from that person.

These are just a few of the many love actions available to us. Others include gentleness, compassion, tolerance, etc.

You know, God’s love to us is not based on how he feels about us. He may be, and I’m sure often is, very displeased with us as individuals, yet his love and his goodness toward us are constant. Therefore, he does not require us to have good feelings toward everyone, but rather to act in love toward everyone.

Write it on a piece of paper and tape it to your mirror, your desk, over your sink, put it on your screen saver—wherever you will see it often: Love is not a feeling; love is an action!

TheChristianWorkingWoman.org

 


 

 

 

Here Are Some Helpful Links:

 

 


 

 

Specific Relationship Resource Links:

Accountability PartnerLove Or Lust
Better MarriageLove Your Enemies
Building Healthy RelationshipsMarriage Relationship
CommunicationMarriage Tips
DatingPeer Pressure
Dating AdvicePersonal Inventory
DivorcePrevent Divorce
Falling In LoveRelationship With Jesus
Friends Can HelpRelationships
FriendshipsRomantic Relationships
Get To Know OthersSex
Healing From DivorceSex Is Not A Sport
Healthy FriendshipsSex Outside Marriage
How To Be Kind?Talk With Someone How
How To Forgive?Understand Others
Improve Your MarriageWhat Is Love?
LoveWisdom In Relationships

 


 

 

When Have You Loved Your Enemies?Love even those who are not nice to you! NeedEncouragement.com

Loving your enemies can be described in many ways. It can be forgiveness, not allowing another person’s skin color to make a difference, not letting slander come out of your mouth towards them, or allowing hatred to reside in your heart. Love your enemies is often uncommon because many people think about hating one another today. You can not control other people, but you can control how you feel and act when loving your enemies. Jesus spoke about loving one another and forgiving one another. Realize that God commands us to love our enemies, yet it is sometimes tricky. We all need to forgive and love others, yet forgiveness and trust are different.

 

 

Love Your Enemies ~ Love Wins Over Hate!

It may seem strange to love your enemies, but it is a command from God. There are people in my life that I have found it sometimes difficult to like. Sometimes it is hard to get along with others who rub us wrong. What benefit is it to love those who love you? Anyone can do that, but to love your enemies is where it takes special love and strength. The real test of love is to love those who are challenging to love and those who might consider you their enemy.  

Although with our strength and might, we will continue to struggle with loving others, especially learning how to love our enemy. It is not until we realize that we all need God’s love and mercy to empower us to do what we cannot do on our own. If you are struggling to love others in your life, or perhaps they are struggling to love you, you need to take your concerns to God, who will help you sort things out for you. You need to love God and love your enemies!~ Bill Greguska

 

 


 

 

Love Your Enemies Because God Loves Them!


 

 

How To Love Unbelievers!Love your enemies and pray for them! NeedEncouragement.com

Loving unbelievers is a different story, but not a story we are unfamiliar with. For We were unbelievers and enslaved people to the flesh at one point. Interacting with all unbelievers can be summed up by Colossians: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so you may know how you answer each person.” (Colossians 4:5-6) Show them kindness when you speak with them and be attractive (not physically). When you talk, attract them to Jesus. Make them wonder why you have joy. One of the best ways to love your enemies is to make them your friends! But without God’s help, this is nearly impossible!

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

How Do I Love My Enemies?

Yes, we are called to pray for those who persecute us! Here are a few verses that show us how to act toward our enemies.

Matthew 5:43-48  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Matthew 5:44 Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Luke 6:27-31 – “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you an ad from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish they would do to you, do so to them.”
Luke 6:35 – “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”
Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 
Luke 6:36 – “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
We are called to do, honestly, the exact opposite of what our human tendencies are. Instead of getting mad and getting even, we are to bless our enemies. This is possible for all Christians because we did not deserve Christ’s shed blood on the cross; we deserved the cross ourselves. Because He loved us enough to take our place, we can love people that hate us.

 

 


 

 

Become Free By Forgiving Others Who Have Offended You!


 

 

Why Is It Sometimes So Difficult To Love Others?

Many people seem to be just hard to get along with! I am sure you know many people that are like that. Some people’s personalities and attitudes tend to rub us the wrong way. I sincerely encourage you to stop making a list of individuals you do not like or get along with and start loving them with God’s help.

God teaches us to love our enemy and do good to those who do us wrong.  It says in Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Where Does God’s Kind Of Love Lead You?

God’s kind of love causes the Great Commission to become a personal responsibility and privilege to carry out. When non-Christians observe believers not only saying that they love one another but also proving it by their actions, they will be amazed at how they love one another” and will be drawn to receive and worship our Savior with us.

Why not make this prayer your own: “Lord, You would never have commanded me to love had You not intended to enable me to do so. Therefore, right now, because of the authority of Your commands for me to love and because of the power of Your promise to answer if I ask anything according to Your will, I claim Your love, the 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love, for You, for all people, and myself. Amen.

God Has Forgiven You, So You Must Forgive Others!

Understand and Thank God that you are a child of God, and all your past, present, and even future sins are forgiven. Thank God that Satan has no control over you unless God has allowed it. Remember to cast our problems and worries over to the Lord as we are told to do in 1 Peter 5:7.

Do you possibly have a boss, co-worker, spouse, children, father, or mother on the list of those you need extra effort to love? Start by praying for each person. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with the love of Jesus for each one of them. Then, when you do get an opportunity to meet with them, ask God to fill you with his compassion so you can be a blessing to them. Watch God use your smile, words, and patience to express His love for each person.

As believers, we have been instructed to love our enemies. That could mean everyone who angers you, ignores you, bores you, or frustrates you. God wants you to love those who are kind to you and all people in your life, period, as far as it depends on you. Remember, you can not make others be at peace with you if they choose not to. 

 

 


 

 

 

 

How Do You Love Others?


Love Everyone!

(This section is from The Book I wrote)

Lord, I try to love others (including even my enemies and those who irritate me), the way I want to be loved. Anyone can love those who are nice to them, but if I can love even my enemies, that is the type of love you talk about in your word.  In those times when I struggle to love, I need to call on you, Lord, for the patience and strength to love others the way you love me. I’ve learned that love doesn’t cost a penny, yet it yields high dividends.

Lord, please help me love others more, rather than judging them or talking behind their backs, as we tend to do. Help me follow your example of demonstrating love towards others every day.

Lord, please help me to be more like you by sharing love more freely.  Help me carry out your command to love others the best I can; and if I fall short, help me confess, repent, and make things right with your help.

Matthew 5:44 ~ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything: the better you are with your loved ones, the better you are with your enemies, the better you are at your job, the better you are with yourself. ~ Bill Murray, American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and writer.

NeedEncouragement.com/how-to-be-kind

 


 

 

How Can We Love Our Enemies?


Some Specific Scriptures To Encourage You:

Luke 6:27-36 ESV

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Psalm 109:2-5 ESV

For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate and attack me without cause. In return for my love, they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good and hatred for my love.

Romans 12:14 ESV

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Proverbs 24:17 ESV 

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,

Romans 12:20 ESV 

To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Proverbs 16:7 ESV 

When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Exodus 14:14 ESV 

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Luke 23:34 ESV 

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Psalm 71:10 ESV 

For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together.

Exodus 23:22 ESV

But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

 


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