What does this MEAN?!

By: Monique Smith

“. . .Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” 

Luke 6:27-28

No really. What does this mean? How in the world does God expect us to practically do these things in our lives? This is basically impossible.

To be honest, pretty much everything in the Bible is impossible within ourselves. Hence, this scripture: 

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

I really thank God for scriptures such as these because without them, I personally would chalk that scripture up as an “L” and say, “I can’t do that” and keep it moving. But knowing that since I have faith that I was saved by grace and have the precious gift of the Holy Spirit inside me, I have confidence that I will be able to practice what is in Luke 6:27-28!

When I read this scripture this morning, I started thinking about how I have practiced doing these things in my life.

1. Loving my enemies. Oh boy. Is this one interesting? The way I love people who I know have been talking junk behind my back or blatantly treat me disrespectful is by being honest to God and asking Him to help me love that person. A sample conversation with God might be: God, I am REALLY struggling to love this girl because she is ALWAYS so rude and negative towards me. I just don’t get it. Lord, I want to love her so please please pleasssssse help me realize that what she is doing to me, in no way compares to the things people did to YOU but you STILL love them!

2. Doing good to those who hate me. I honestly used to enjoy doing this because it was my way of “getting back” at them. I would “kill them with kindness”, but now that I am more mature in Christ, I realize that remaining Christ like at all times is actually ministry and could touch the heart of those who “hate” me and help them overcome internal or external battles they may be dealing with.

3. Blessing those who curse me. Well I haven’t had anyone curse at me in a while, but I have learned that I have the power to reverse any curse that someone speaks over my life….even if it is said jokingly. For example: Someone may say “Monique, you are SO unorganized”, I will then say “I’m not unorganized! : ) As simple as that, I reversed their “joke” so that would not affect my future. And to look more back at the verse, in those situations, I could “jokingly” say, “God will bless you!” or something nice and positive about them. (Idk, I’m just thinking as I type) lol

4. Pray for those who use me. Whew. What a terrible feeling to KNOW you are being used! So many emotions rush to my mind at even thinking about times when I was being used or imagining if I was being used now. In situations like this, I really just try to make my situation pale in comparison to how bad people, even Jesus’ friends, his disciples, used Him. He still loved them. I can still love and pray for others too. Also, I try to look at it in a positive way, “Even though they used me and it made me hot as fire, I was still able to showcase my skills and my abilities to help them out in their situation. And in the long run, I’m not here working for men anyways! It’s ALL for God! "Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men" Colossians 3:23.

Prayer: God thank you for today! Today has been such a great day and your mercy and loved has flowed out of me into my surroundings today! You are so great and I love you! Thank you for giving me your precious Holy Spirit so I would have the ability to live life in a way that is pleasing to you! God You are amazing and I love you! In Jesus name, Amen.