God Speaks

A little over a year ago, some events took place in my life that caused family members to act like enemies. We decided it was best for us to close the doors to some of our relationships. We needed time to grow, learn and better ourselves and unfortunately, closing these doors was the only way to do that at the time.
Over the past several weeks, the message at church has been to love your enemy. Since family members were acting like enemies, it was those family members I first thought of. God had been sending me a message to try to open those doors. But I didn’t know how. So many hurtful things had been said and you can’t unsay things you have already said. But that’s okay! You can’t undo what has already been done. What you can do is try your best to make sure you do things better in the future.
I continued to pray, because I still did not feel I knew how to do what God was asking me to do. I prayed to God, asking him how do I show love to my enemy? Before I continue, I want to emphasize I do not really consider these people my enemy. I use it more as an analogy. God gave me the answer. Scrolling through my Facebook news feed one day, I saw a post that said something along these lines,

“Extend the same grace to others that God has extended to you.”

I had my answer. I knew how God wanted me to show love to my enemies. But I was still confused. I asked myself, “What grace does God extend to me?” He forgives me. He blesses me. Okay, how can I do that for them? I didn’t know the answer to that question so I waited. Then it came to me. Someone said something along the lines of “Others see our love in what we pray.” God wanted me to begin by praying for my enemies. But in order for it to do any good, they had to see what I had been praying for.
“But what words do I use?” God put the words into my head. I began to post prayers were others could see them. I sent prayers to three people. Two of those people had very positive responses. The third person only had words filled with anger and hate. Literally right after I read her responses, I opened a devotional app on my phone. The Bible verse for that day was

Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. ~ Ephesians 5:11

I sent the same prayer to three different people. Two responded with kindness. The third responded with hostility, anger and hatred. As I read her responses, I did not get angry. I could feel her pain, her hurt. I don’t know what caused her pain, but it is deep. I wanted to offer her comfort, but sadly, it is not me she is wanting to receive comfort from.
I pray, Lord, that you will take that pain and hurt away from her. I pray that others will show her love. I pray you will allow her to feel that love. I pray that you will put someone in her life with whom she would want to fight to keep the relationship alive instead of fight to destroy it. Lord, every one deserves love and happiness, no matter what they have done in their past. Please, Lord, help her feel your forgiveness.