How can I, if I am a true follower of Christ, continue to focus on the hate others have for me rather then the love, mercy and forgiveness our Lord has for all of us? Just as He has forgiven me, and continues to do so daily, He also extends to all who seek Him.When we spend our time focusing on the hate others have, be it for us, or for others and mirror it to Jesus Christs mission, you can see a contradiction of what He asks of us. Imagine the entire mission of our Lord being spent in self pity rather then of self sacrifice. His entire message becomes lost and therefor so do we. We do not know if our enemies are in search of Him or not, with their hearts. We do know, Christ is in search of them.

“If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands we are in the position of children”

This focus on others we have is born of fear for self, rather then loss of God, or “Fear of the Lord”. When we face the fears we have of others such as: I am not comfortable to extend a hand to those who I do not understand, who do not share my belief, who are of a different background, or fill in the blank. Along with those who truly are trying to kill us. In the particular case of the ones without a doubt, who ARE trying to kill us, we must STILL extend the spiritual hand by truly living the faith. We do not understand and can not comprehend what God’s plan for our enemies is, we do know His love for them is equal to the love he has for us and when we have a “Vision” of what WE want for God, in regards to our enemies, the door to self sacrifice can and will be opened. We have to ask OURSELVES, “Do I want my enemies to share in the eternal life with Christ? Or is my “Vision” for God in regards to my enemies eternal damnation?

If we do this, we must understand, our actions will spark the flame of the Holy Spirit in each and every human being, it is then up to us, to act on that flame, rather then extinguish it. Just as Saint Paul (Saul) before his conversion, believed he was doing the work of God, by rounding up ALL the Christians, to be executed, so are the enemies we face, not always in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense. BUT we add to this misunderstanding by doing exactly as they do by NOT loving them and not trusting in our Lord enough to know, He is all seeing, all knowing and all merciful.. Feeding “Pride” rather then nurturing humility. Be it in our own homes, which I call the unknown enemy, or the known enemies seeking to destroy the entire fabric of our Christian faith. To read what our Lord expects of us, we can look to His “Sermon on the Mount” Matthew 5

We all want to live in peace. The problem is, our ideas of peace, are all different. We know when Christ returns, He will bring TRUE peace with Him, to all of us, together with our enemies, if we are ready or not. The key is to be ready.

“Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.”