"You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, 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, that you may be sons of your Father 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. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? - Matthew 5:43-46 (NKJV)
Everybody has had someone in their life that has done them wrong; someone that has used or abused them with no remorse or regret. Even years after the incident, the feelings of hurt that we have inside of us can continue to brew. When we are harboring anger and bad feelings toward someone, it affects our lives and how we interact with other people.
Earlier this year, my Dad passed away. We had a very troubled relationship over the years. Although I truly miss him, after his passing I began re-plowing old ground in our relationship. I realized that I was holding on to every problem we had as I was growing up. I still became angered and hurt at him, even after all of this time. As I reexamined my childhood, I began to remember things that I had long since forgotten. With every memory came a new flood of emotion.
After a time, I began to realize that there was no way to redo the past; to fix the wrongs. I realized that I needed to move on. I felt like the best thing that I could do was to ask God for help with these reemerging feelings. I began to pray for strength and compassion. I wanted to love my Dad regardless of our past. With God's help, I was able to put it all behind me and reformulate my love for my Dad. It was a process that I could not have went through without prayer.
In reality, many times too much time has passed to do anything about old incidents. I remember having boys bully me in school, but truly, who remembers it besides me? Most of these incidents happened almost 25 or 30 years ago.
Even today, I encounter people that hassle me about my Christianity and those that simply do not believe that accepting Christ made the difference in my life that it did. They say and do all sorts of things, but I have to remain faithful to my Christianity. Christ is more important to me than any issues that I can have with someone.
The best way that we can deal with those that have wronged us to simply pray for them and treat them the way that Christ treated those that persecuted Him. As He hung on the cross, he prayed "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." The volume of love he showed in those simple words is amazing to me and brings me to tears every time I read them. It is something that each one of us should strive to achieve for our enemies. After all, it is our duty to reach the lost of the world and show them the love that Christ has for them.
