Break Their Face

Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. - Psalm 3:7

This week we’re learning from Jesus how to love our enemies. This may not be a verse that comes to mind immediately when you think of loving your enemies! But let’s give it a try…

How can you love your enemies if you don’t allow yourself to really feel what’s going on inside of you because of their oppression or injustice or threats? Oftentimes, all that comes out of us is a repressed niceness. But Jesus wants more - he’s calling for agape love, which is the unconditional kind. But it’s hard to get there until you can reckon with the real pain and injustice they’ve done to you.

Often times the first step towards forgiving and loving our enemies is cussing them out… in prayer (not to their face!). It means getting really honest with the suffering you’re facing and not living in denial anymore. It means naming their badness to God, and letting God deal with them. It may include ranting and raving - all of which is completely safe with God. In fact, God gave us the psalms as examples of what we’re actually allowed to pray! We’re SUPPOSED to pray that line above!

Indeed, that line above is a first step towards love. It’s naming the pain and hurt and releasing it to God so that we can take the next step and forgive the real harm done to us. So take some time today and see if there is anyone you can pray that prayer over today as part of the journey towards loving them.