Love Your Enemies

This is the day that the LORD has made...AND I AM STRUGGLING to follow Him deeper into the valley. I thought I was going to be ascending back up the mountain soon. Yes, maybe staying in the valley - on level ground. I didn't know that the valley had another decline into a deeper, darker area. 

"I don't want to do it, Jesus.!!! I can't go there. I just can't follow you there!! 

No, please don't ask it of me. Please don't go there and expect me to follow." 

Yet, Jesus doesn't stop, and He keeps moving. All the while, He looks back at me and says, 

"You can do this. I will give you the strength and grace that you need. 

I will do it for you, if you trust me and believe."

I ponder in my heart, "I have no where else to go. I cannot go back. 

I cannot just stop and be immobile...Oh, but I can't see how this is going to work. 

I have no where else to go. Why can't I just stay here? The valley doesn't look so bad now. 

What if I try to go back to the other mountain I was on last year? 

Oh, but I don't know how to get back there."

"LisaBeth, you can trust Me. I am your Savior and Friend. 

I have been where I am taking you. I know it well. You don't have to be afraid. 

I will hold Your hand the whole time."

"Okay, Jesus. I will follow you. Show me how to walk in this new place. 

Show me how to talk in this new place. 

Show me how to fellowship with You in this new place."

This new place, for those of you who are reading, is the place where I love my enemies - where I love those who are cursing me and saying evil of me. 

“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you." Luke 6:27-28

I have never been more aware of those who hate me - especially those very close to me. I have never had to continually face the same people over and over again who are against me. Most of my life, I have felt safe and secure with people. Part of that could stem from wanting to live for them and do everything possible to please them. Wow, did I have that part of life wrong. Jesus, exhorts his followers time and time again to be only about His Father's approval. God as well speaks of our mouths as a combination of fresh and salt water - it is a place where we can bless and curse the same person in the same breath. 

My encouragement in moving forward, in obeying God's command, is Isaiah and Jeremiah. Yes, these beautiful little, men of God are my encouragement. If I want them to live and move according to the Spirit of the Living God, then I must do the same. They are learning the ways of the LORD from me and my husband (of course through many others in their lives as well - we are simply their primary source of guidance right now).

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 18:6

If they are going to learn this way of life then I want them to first learn it from me and my husband. I want to be the righteous parents they deserve.

"Jesus, I plead your blood over me and my family. I ask for grace to proceed on the straight and narrow. And for those who are reading this with me, LORD, I ask the same over them and their families. Have Your way, Father. Let Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Holy Spirit come. Amen and amen."