Loving Your Enemies

Having loving thoughts about your loved ones whether they are friends or family is easy to do. Try having warm fuzzy thoughts about a grumpy co-worker, or that idiotic driver or that strange acting lady you encountered unexpectedly today. I'm guessing you are wondering why you would want to even try to send loving thoughts toward these ugly acting folks. You should pray for them, because it will change your life and their life for the better.

I don't feel I have any enemies, but I have prayed for people who have wronged me or showed fierce hatred toward me. I didn't know what else to do so I prayed for them. Don't get me wrong I didn't get the idea from out the clear blue sky, I heard of this technique from my pastor during a church service. It made sense, but at the same time it didn't make sense. I experienced the true nature of this idea when I put it into practice for myself. Yes, it does help the other person whether they know it or not, but it also has an unexpected bonus of helping yourself.

I experienced the all too familiar phenomenon of having a co-worker hate me for no particular reason other than I exist. It happens all too often in the workplace, a co-worker who doesn't know you, doesn't really see you much, but has managed to find a reason to hate you. I've tried several things among which were to ignore them, find them humorous in a sick way and hated them back. None of those techniques worked; in fact they escalated the problem. The last time I had someone hate me with a passion I finally got the message that I should pray for them. So I did. I prayed for her with such an intensity that it had to rival her hatred. I prayed that she would receive what was the best for her and her family. I saw immediate results. Keep in mind I didn't tell the person anything about what I was doing. Within two days she was treating me much, much better. By the end of the week we were friends. I don't know what happened on her end to change her attitude; I'm just grateful for the change and keep praying to keep the new relationship going great.

I used to have a next door neighbor who had an extremely loud and obnoxious teenager with friends who were even worse than him. Usually when I'm inside I can block out the outside world. I don't hear dogs barking, cars going by or stereos blasting. I've lived in apartments for about 25 years and had train myself not to be bothered by noise. This kid and his friends were loud enough to penetrate my world. Instead of going next door to complain or calling the police, I prayed for the kid and his friends. When I did this most of the times within minutes the noise would drop back down to a reasonable level. I got to where I started praying for the whole family all the time, whether they were noisy or not. I think I may have overdone it a bit. After praying for them a couple of years they moved. I now have an extremely quiet neighbor. I still pray for my former neighbors. I don't know where they are, but I hope they are doing well and being good neighbors.
Well that's it. Let us all try praying for our enemies; perhaps we can change the world. Have I convinced you to try?