God Loves His Enemies and So Must We Love Ours.

This is one of John MacArthur's most powerful sermons.  No, for me at least I think it is THE most powerful he has ever preached.  Becausre i needed to hear it.  I know God says we are to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and I remember to do it from time to time, but not with much fervor or consistency.  I still flare up in anger when I'm lied about or otherwise slighted or put down.  Sometimes I remember to pray for the enemy in those cases too but pretty rarely.  As I listened to this sermon tears were running down my face.  Finally I understand it.  Thank You LORD, thank you John MacArthur.  I don't think I can bgo on forgetting it anyh more.  

Loving Your Enemies as God Does - YouTube

I disocvered people to pray for I never think about, people I do regard as enemies without really acknowledging to myself that I do, but my reaction is to avoid them.  Now I will pray for them and pray that God will give me real desire to pray for them rather than the cursory dutiful prayers I'm likely to fall into.

I'd heard some wrong preaching on this before.  For instance I'd heard the imprecatory prayers in the psalms recommended to Christians as something we can pray against God's enemies.  But MacArthur makes it very clear that those psalms are for particular situations and have nothing to do with the command to us to personally love our personal enemies.  He did a marvelous job of mustering all the scriptures in both Old and New Testaments that exhort us to love our enemies.    I'd always assumed that loving our nieghbor or our enemy didn't mean we have to FEEL love for them simply will the best for them, but I'd heard a preacher contradict that idea and insist we are to feel love for them.  I knew that for me that's impossible, and I wasn't sure that was the correct understanding anyway.  But MacArthur preached that it a love of the will and not of the affections that is meant, agape love, willed beneficence, kindness to all, not the personal felt love.  That makes more sense and I'm grateful to have that cleared up.

The teaching is also general, we are to pray for all sinners, not just our personal enemies.  The hard thing for me, and I don't think I'm alone, is to pray for the leaders who are promoting dangerous and evil social policies these days.  Now I want to pray for them. 

I'm convicted to the core of my lack of love.  Thank You LORD.