Love

But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven.
Mt.5:44,45

Jesus is giving His great Sermon on the Mount, outlining His radical new way to live as followers of Him. He turned the world upside down for His Jewish listeners. He turns the world upside down for me.

All of Jesus' teaching in His Sermon on the mount flies in the face of the world's teaching and none more-so than "love your enemies". Revenge is not part of Jesus' vocabulary. Utu is a foreign concept to Him. Revenge is very much part of the language of the world because it's all about me. Love is the language of God as it is all about other.

There is a deep craving within me to focus on me, my plans, my rights, my wants, my needs. But there is an even deeper yearning to be free of that insatiable self-centered life, to be who I was really created to be; a great lover of others. Today Jesus shows me a way to that freedom. It's part of the underlying call to all believers... love God and love others. Today I love, not on my terms but on God's terms... and with His help I can do it.

Jesus, lover of my soul, teach me how to love today. Starting with those You place about me.
Little Flower, please pray for me.