Prayers

Cointerintuitive

by Terry Barlow
08/08/18
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Why is it that the first time in the gospels that Jesus talks about love or prayer it is in regard to one's enemies or those who mistreat us? (Matthew 5, v.43-48)  We would be inclined to begin our attempts at love with our family and friends or with those who treat us well and are thus easier to love, and then work from there toward those who would seem to be more difficult to love and less likely to  motivate us toward praying for them.  God's thoughts are not our thoughts.  They are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55, v8-9)  Perhaps it is at least partly because if we can love our enemies it will be that much easier and automatic to love our friends.  It's kind of all downhill from there.   And if we can bless and pray for those who mistreat us it will be a piece of cake to bless and pray for friends and family.  In his letter to the Thessalonians the apostle Paul stated in so many words that they, the Thessalonians,  had proven themselves worthy of their being called into the Chrsitian life by the way they responded to opposition and persecution.  Sometimes goung through that kind of a trial togther can pull a people or a congregation closer together.  They have been tempered in the same fire, and bonds are formed in the heat of that fire thar the sufferers may not realize are being formed.  A deeper love and affection and appreciation for each other is being birthed that is well worth the considerable cost!

Also if we can extend a blessing toward our sons and daughters, telling them how proud we are of them despite any disappointments they may have caused us,  even though that kind of blessing was never extended to us by our parents, we are actually bringing upon ourselves that missing blessing by the very act of giving it ourselves.  That is one of God's ways of providing us something crucial and valuable that was denied us earlier in life, because we can't actually go back in time and obtain it otherwise.  What a much needed revelation! (at least for me and some others I know)