Matthew 5:11-12<\/p>\n
\u201cBlessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.\u201d<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
One Sunday, following our evening service, a man in the congregation asked if he might come to the parsonage and talk with me.\u00a0 I was delighted, and when he came we had a small lunch before going into my office.<\/p>\n
Out of the clear blue came these words: \u201cI hate your guts!\u201d\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 You could have knocked me over with a feather.\u00a0 Prior to this there did not seem to be anything of a conflict between us, so his statement was a blow.<\/p>\n
With my mind reeling, I prayed silently for God\u2019s wisdom and strength.\u00a0 With as much sincerity as possible I answered, \u201cI am so glad that you feel free to share your feelings with me.\u201d\u00a0 From that incident I would like to suggest a few ways to respond to and love the unlovable.<\/p>\n
(1)\u00a0 Rely on God\u2019s wisdom in dealing with the person.
\n(2)\u00a0 Realize that these unlovable people need love\u2014perhaps more than others.
\n(3)\u00a0 Remember how unlovable our sins are in God\u2019s sight.
\n(4)\u00a0 Rejoice that we are counted worthy to encounter persecution.
\n(5)\u00a0 Respond with love rather than retaliate with resentment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat happened on that Sunday evening so long ago?\u00a0 We spent time together as he poured out his heart.\u00a0 As he was leaving he looked me directly in the eye and said, \u201cPastor, I love you so much!\u201d\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 That was a dramatic change from the comments he made earlier.\u00a0 God is so good!<\/strong><\/p>\n
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!<\/p>\n
– – – Pastor Cecil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 5:11-12 \u201cBlessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.\u201d One Sunday, following our evening service, a man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-e-votionals","category-matthew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}