Devotional: Enemy Love

Dear God of Love and Justice,

The earth is Yours, and everything in it — including the person I find hardest to love. That neighbor whose dog tears through my garden. That coworker who takes credit for my ideas. That family member who said the thing at Thanksgiving I still can't unhear. Psalm 24:1 tells me You hold the deed to every square inch of this world, and that means You hold the deed to every heart in it — even the ones that feel like enemy territory to me.

John Wesley once knelt in prayer for a man who had publicly slandered him, and when asked how he could do it, he said simply, "Because God loved him before I found him difficult." That is the scandal of Your grace, Lord — it does not ask whether someone deserves it first.

So teach me today the holy discipline of enemy love. Not a sentimental feeling, but a Christ-shaped decision. Help me pray — really pray — for the person whose name tightens my jaw. Help me see Your image stamped on the face I would rather look away from. Remind me that agape, Your self-giving love, was never meant to be comfortable. It was meant to be cruciform.