{"id":12868,"date":"2025-07-27T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/?p=12868"},"modified":"2025-06-29T06:47:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T11:47:43","slug":"love-your-enemies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/27\/love-your-enemies-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Your Enemies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One-minute read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Orange-Flower-Photocentric-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12869\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Orange-Flower-Photocentric-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Orange-Flower-Photocentric-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Orange-Flower-Photocentric-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Orange-Flower-Photocentric-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Orange-Flower-Photocentric-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-180x180.png 180w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Orange-Flower-Photocentric-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God, Most High, shows kindness to the ungrateful and wicked.\u00a0 Starting from the end of the verse may help us understand the beginning of the verse.\u00a0 Defining the ungrateful and wicked may cause certain people to pop into your mind, but does it make you think of yourself?\u00a0 Each of us has complained about something in our lives we wish God had done differently.\u00a0 And everyone has done something wicked, i.e., sinned. \u00a0Jesus came to Earth because of our ungrateful and wicked natures that needed saving from ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, when we think of our enemies, and whatever they did to become that way, maybe we have a slightly different perspective.&nbsp; Judging them through our eyes can lead to incorrect assessments, but looking at them through Christ\u2019s eyes helps us see their humanity, a condition we all share.&nbsp; All of us fall short of the mark and need grace and mercy from above.&nbsp; When we do good for our enemies, we exemplify Jesus and share His divine nature with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Praying for those who hurt you helps begin the process of doing good for them.\u00a0 As we begin to see them in a different light, it will soften our hearts and help us love them for the sake of Jesus.\u00a0 But we can\u2019t do it without God.\u00a0 In our human nature, they remain our enemy.\u00a0 But when we align our hearts with the Lord\u2019s and see things from His perspective, it becomes easier to live out the command to love our enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Journal Question:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">How does acknowledging your sin help you show grace to others?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Random Act of Kindness:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">How can you actively love someone you deem an enemy today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One-minute read. God, Most High, shows kindness to the ungrateful and wicked.\u00a0 Starting from the end of the verse may help us understand the beginning of the verse.\u00a0 Defining the ungrateful and wicked may cause certain people to pop into your mind, but does it make you think of yourself?\u00a0 Each of us has complained&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/27\/love-your-enemies-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Love Your Enemies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12868"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12871,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12868\/revisions\/12871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}