In The Passion of the Christ there is a scene where Jesus is giving the disciples instructions on their enemies.

Every time I watch it I can’t help but weep because it feels he is directly speaking to me.

He tells them, “If you only love those that love you what reward is there in that?”

When we read about loving our enemies, (especially when we are new believers) we are so hopeful and full of brand new, bless our little hearts, Christian energy.

Until it happens.

Until we realize that sometimes our enemies will be the people we love the most.

We never imagined that our enemies could be our parents, spouse, kids, best friends, and people we would never dream of hurting us.

But here’s the real kicker which I have been rolling around in my head for some time.

What if our enemies, the people who hurt us, annoy us, and that we want to literally punch in the face, are the very people God put there to hurt us, annoy us, and royally tick us off?

Go with me for a minute okay?

I had this mind-blowing discovery a couple of years ago when I was teaching a bible study to some teenagers.

I had re-read the story of King David and Saul.

I wanted to know why God referred to David as “A man after my own heart.”

I found three interesting things as I dug into David’s story and his relationships.

I believe there were three pivotal people God strategically placed in David’s life (and He does the same in ours) to give him a heart that was like his own.

David needed a Jonathan, (his best friend) to love him and encourage him.

He needed a Nathan to confront him when he was hiding and in sin.

And he needed a Saul to deeply hurt and betray him.

In this story in case you didn’t know, the Lord was taking the crown from Saul and anointing David King because Saul had disobeyed and sinned against Him. And Saul becomes so green with jealousy he chases him and tries to kill him for years.

Scholars can’t say for certain how long David ran from him, but they guesstimate anywhere between fifteen and twenty years. Let’s just ponder on that for a moment shall we?

TWENTY YEARS being taunted by your enemy.

Saul, the man David had respected and played the harp for. The man who was the father of his best friend Jonathan.

A man David had trusted.

And as David hid out in caves (and must have been wondering why God was allowing all this misery )he wrote many of the Psalms you and I read today which comfort us in our darkest hours.

But, here’s the part which blows me away and why we can learn so much from David.

David had a couple of chances to kill Saul but he didn’t.

He could have ended it all, (and rightly so) and made his life so much easier, but he refused to disobey or dishonor God and take matters into his own hands.

But here is what baffles me most and I had to re-read over and over:

When Jonathan and Saul dies, David not only weeps for Jonathan but for Saul.

Not only that, he writes a song of lament for both of them and says loving kind words about Saul.

What.in.the.world?!

How did David still love this man after everything he had done to him?!

I believe two things:

Because of his close relationship with the Lord he trusted in His sovereignty in his relationships and the Lord graced David with supernatural love for Saul.

David did not have it in him to naturally love Saul on his own.

And after reading David’s story and looking back over my relationships; even the most painful, I have realized this:

Like David, I have needed every Saul.

I have needed Sauls to reveal to me the places in my heart which I have not let the Lord invade.

I have needed Sauls to unveil in me unhealthy patterns, pride, bitterness, and my thirst for revenge.

I have needed Sauls just like David did, to test and try me to see if I would pray for my enemies and love them as Jesus commanded. And the truth is, I have passed some tests and failed others.

Most of all, I needed the Lord to strategically place enemies in my life because there was no other way to get a heart like His.

Here is what I’m learning, (yet still resisting and pouting about), to become a woman or man after God’s own heart, we like David, are going to need some caves, loneliness, and betrayal.

Oh yes my lovelies, we are going to need some tests because our natural tendencies match exactly what our culture is telling us to do:

Bar up your heart, don’t let anyone in, and protect yourself at all costs.

And here’s the deal, that’s all good and fine and dandy if we want to love as the world loves.

But, if we want a heart like our Savior’s we are going to have to stop being wimpy Christians and buckle up and put on our big girl (or boy) panties.

Because loving like Jesus is brutal and takes some serious guts.

It would be so much easier to repay evil for evil and let our hearts grow cold wouldn’t it? Or to never let others in again?

But, here’s the truth God made us to do hard things. So let’s kick the enemy in the teeth and not let him win.

I want to end this with an audacious and absolutely ridiculous challenge:

Let’s thank God for our Sauls.

Let’s thank Him for each and every one because of what they have taught and revealed to us about the condition of our hearts.

Let’s thank them for showing us that yes, we too, at times have been jealous, mean, spiteful, and acted anything but like Jesus.

But most of all let’s thank them for the reward:

That with every relational challenge, if we will trust our Heavenly Father, He will refine the places in our hearts which are cold, shattered, and closed off.

And He will replace them with ones which are healed and whole.

Hearts which ooze His unbelievable mercy and love.

And have a familiar rhythm and heartbeat which sounds a lot like His.

(Image: pexels.com)

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