{"id":60,"date":"2017-06-07T11:45:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T11:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=60"},"modified":"2019-12-10T08:44:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T13:44:39","slug":"60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2017\/06\/07\/60\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Your Enemies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><sup class=\"versenum\">\u00a0&#8220;<\/sup>But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.&#8221; \u00a0Matthew 5:44<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nOne of the most common conversations I&#8217;ve had with people is about praying for your enemies. \u00a0People are very resistant to praying for those they have categorized as their opponent. My pat answer has always been because it changes you. \u00a0It changes your heart. \u00a0It changes your perspective.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m currently reading through &#8220;The Power of a Praying Wife&#8221; by Stormie \u00a0Omartian. \u00a0I love how she describes it:<br \/>\n<em>&#8220;The safeguard you have with prayer is that you have to go through God to do it. \u00a0This means you can&#8217;t get away with bad attitude, wrong thinking, or incorrect motives. \u00a0When you pray, God reveals anything in your personality that is resistant to His order of things.&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\nI love this new way of thinking about this verse, about praying for your enemies. \u00a0When you enter into prayer with God, in sincerity, you can let it all hang out. \u00a0You can rant and rave and give it all to Him. \u00a0He can handle it. \u00a0What He does with it will amaze you.<br \/>\nHe doesn&#8217;t hit you over the head with a hammer. \u00a0He doesn&#8217;t berate you or call you names. \u00a0He loves you. \u00a0He loves the person with whom you are mad.<br \/>\nHe will gently remind you that you have your flaws. \u00a0He will help you recognize that you have a part in the disagreement or conflict. \u00a0He will show you where you need to change. \u00a0He will do it all cushioned in such unconditional love you will be grateful.<br \/>\nHe safeguards you from yourself as you go through Him to process your anger. \u00a0He will calm the seas of your heart. \u00a0He will give you direction. \u00a0He will help you gain perspective.<br \/>\nFirst though, you have to go to Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0&#8220;But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.&#8221; \u00a0Matthew 5:44 One of the most common conversations I&#8217;ve had with people is about praying for your enemies. \u00a0People are very resistant to praying for those they have categorized as their opponent. My pat answer has always been because it changes&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2017\/06\/07\/60\/\" 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-60","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\/60","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=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1607,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/1607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}