"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you......" Matthew 5: 44
This was one of the verses in my devotional time this afternoon.
Most of the day (my first day of Winter Break) was spent either at the grocery store getting stocked up for the week (am having 3 teens over mid-week for a sleepover party, and on Friday am hosting a brunch for a friend from church and her 11 year old who is friends with my 11 yr old!)......and dusting/vacuuming the upstairs. I am doing some early spring cleaning....we will be leaving on our Paris trip in early April which is normally when I get the bulk of the cleaning done.
So today I tackled the master bedroom and my 11 yr old's bedroom plus the hallway. Tomorrow I will do my teen's bedroom, with her help.......
I took some time to get in the Word this afternoon and this little anecdote from Shelly Breen (from the singing group "Point of Grace") stood out to me:
"praying for someone who has hurt you somehow takes the sting away. It doesn't always happen automatically, but it always happens. Jesus didn't give us these instructions for nothing. He knew it would soften our hearts toward our enemies."
Then she asks if we have ever been hurt by someone or have felt rejection?
in all honesty, we all have, most likely,at some point or another. Pray for those who have hurt you. Your reward will be great.
I do know that this has helped me in the past. Many years ago, my husband and I were serving on a music ministry together. I won't go into details but....something happened where we were rejected by someone....and it stung. Now, we could have become bitter but.....prayer works against bitterness. We ended up praying for the person and much peace came into our hearts.
IT WORKS!!
So..if you are struggling with the pain of emotional hurt or rejection, pray for the person who wronged you. (sometimes the person might not even be aware that he/she hurt you!).....give the situation over to the Lord and let him take care of it!
Now....back to some more vacuuming!
3 comments:
Today was a holiday for us, Family Day, and the kids are off school all week. I wish I was too. I finally, for supper, made the waffles and blueberries I had promised them for yesterday. Unfortunately both hubby and I were sick all day yesterday and then son got called in to work today so finally them waffles made it to the table. LOL. Other than that not a whole lot got done by me.
Praying for those who hurt us is one of the hardest, yet most freeing things we can do.
Good Morning from the Lone Star State! Hope you're warm and dry up there. Our record breaking snow is all gone and the temps are climbing back up to normal for us this time of year. Trees are starting to bud already.
I have a family member who gets under my skin. I have been hurt by her as well as been offended by her insincerity and untruthfulness. It's so much easier to be angry and bitter than it is to pray for those people who know how to push our buttons! I admit, I struggle with this relationship and have put boundaries into place in order to perserve the relationship. This person pushes against those boundaries constantly.
I know that I am called to pray for her but you know sometimes I just like being angry! Isn't that awful? Sad thing though, I have a feeling that there are many other Christians out there like me!
Good thing God is looking for progress and not perfection since I am anything but! Ha Ha!
Connie
I hear ya Connie...i am the same way!! It is so easy to pray for people who are nice to me! but those that get under my skin??? yikes.....right now I am praying for a friendship to be restored...I just have to leave it in the Lord's hands....I hurt in although it was unintentional and then she hurt me by some words...but...it is in those times that I realize...yup...we need the Savior...we are not perfect and we are always gonna make mistakes until we get to see Him face to face!!
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