Enemies

Enemies

MY QUESTION for GOD

Is it possible to turn an enemy into a friend?

A MOMENT with GOD

Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.

Acts 9:1-5

I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene. Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus. I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities.

Acts 26:9-11

All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!”

Galatians 1:23

Every day, enemies of God become his followers! It is a mystery why he overwhelms some enemies, like Saul, until they turn to his side, but he seems to leave others alone. But in almost every church around the world, you will find believers who once actively opposed God or his people or his way of living but who were eventually persuaded by God’s overwhelming love.

Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

1 Peter 2:12

There is no witness more powerful and effective than having someone who was an enemy become a friend. And you can accomplish that with love, forgiveness, prayer, and kind words.

DIVINE PROMISE

This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. Colossians 1:21-22