Who said Love is fair?
Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30 am EST.
“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
The little girl pouted, arms crossed tight over her chest, and swung her legs in fast succession. “It’s not fair. Her dad helped her with that science project. And she won. She always wins. I hate her.”
Haven’t we all felt that way? We hate to see the bad guys win – the manipulators, the cheaters, the unscrupulous ones who bend the rules to their favor. Life isn’t fair. The guys in white do not always ride off into the sunset victorious. Bullies win, crimes go unsolved and justice seems blind.
No life isn’t fair – but love isn’t either. Love should not be based on deeds. It is an action, not a reaction. If it was based on deeds, wouldn’t we all be unlovable? God tell us we are to love no matter what.
You have heard that it was 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, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45).
The Bible states that to love our enemies is like pouring heaping coals on their heads. Why love our enemies? The answer is simple, yet perhaps one of the hardest things to try and do. Because if we don’t we are out of God’s will. We cannot be His servant, and instrument of His peace. But the only way we can do that is to ask God to help us.
Mind you, to love our enemies is not to condone their behavior. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Have compassion on those who mistreat you or others you love and ask God to help you see them as He wants you to see them, or remove them from your presence until you can so you don’t become a stumbling block. That is not a wimpy, cop-out love. It takes strength and determination, and a Christ-boosted attitude.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP: Has love ever left you gutted?
Questions: Are you facing an enemy today? What can you do to love them instead of hating them?
Need someone to pray for you?
Lily, I understand you completely. In my 20′s I was engaged to someone for whom the Bible was a form of mind control. She used it to justify her own inadequacies and bad behaviour (we’re talking physical and emotional violence, emotional blackmail and a lot of money going her way…). In the end I got her out of my life – with the help of Christians and non Christians – and am now married with a lovely family. This is the short version by the way…
What I’m basically saying (as I see it) is: Christianity is about your relationship with God through Christ – NOT about anyone else’s. I guess I’m saying you have to now find your own path to walk with him, because it sounds like you’ve been walking someone else’s. Don’t feel that turning the other cheek means you have to be everyone’s “punching bag”… (Matt 7:6)? Also don’t feel you have to have a “hard exterior” to put off people from taking advantage of you – if you’re a Christian I believe that protection is something you ask God for…
I hope this helps – I just stumbled onto this site while I was doing some research for a bible study!!! Don’t give up your faith.
Thank you Julie.
This was a great devotional. Thank you.
Yikes! Yet another “tall” order to which i do not respond well too, esp when you say,”Have compassion on those who mistreat you or others you love and ask God to help you see them as He wants you to see them, or remove them from your presence until you can so you don’t become a stumbling block”…SO I DON’T BECOME THE “stumbling block????” i don’t BEGIN to understand this statement! For 7 yrs i followed your suggestion and it got me deeper and deeper into an addiction with a “proclaimed” christian. He mistreated me with lies, manipulations taking advantage of my Bible “principaled” ways! He took advantage of a whole choir he conned his way into so they would give him what he wanted…sympathy, money, food and someone to feel SO sorry for him not having a car (b/c he has a severe gambling addiction)that they let him use thiers. When he managed to get another one…he left the church. God’s been allowing him to get away with this kind of behavior all this life! i was another one of his victims until i basically had a nervous breakdown and got help to get him the heck out of my life. i ‘turned’ my cheek, i held “no records of his wrongs”, i forgave and forgave and FORGAVE AGAIN! Is he now my “enemy”? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT! i DID “try to SEE him as God did”…this is what kept me taking him back over and over again! i “saw” his potential, i “saw” his giving, loving ways and kind heart which apparently was nothing but a disguise! UGH…i can’t stand this kind of devotional Julie b/c when i read the WORDS that’s all they are…a bunch of WORDS which go in one ear and right out the other. It’s thinking that i have to “live up” to these kinds of principals set forth by the LORD that make me feel i don’t even want to BE a christian anymore.