By Melanie
Rigney
(Saul said to David:) “You are in
the right rather than I; you have treated me generously, while I have done you
harm. Great is the generosity you showed me today, when the Lord delivered me
into your grasp and you did not kill me. For if a man meets his enemy, does he
send him away unharmed?” (1 Samuel 24:18-20)
(Jesus)
appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and
he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.
(Mark 3:14-15)
Piety
Lord, help
me to be charitable to my enemies, even when I catch them off their guard and
at a total disadvantage.
Study
Who is the
biggest enemy you’ve ever had in your life, not counting yourself? Perhaps it’s
person who injured you or a loved one physically. Or maybe it’s the person who
successfully wooed the man or woman you considered the love of your life, or
that annoyingly perfect person who always manages to ace you out of promotions
at work or plum assignments in ministry. What would you do if you had the
opportunity to rid yourself of that enemy once and for all, to exact
retribution and wipe him or her off the face of the earth forever?
That felt
good for a moment or two, didn’t it, imagining that person getting his or her
just desserts?
Now think
of David, one of most magnificent, flawed people we meet in the Bible. Saul’s
been hunting him down with three thousand of Israel’s finest. But when David
has the advantage of surprise, he does nothing more than cut off an end of
Saul’s cloak. He confronts Saul, and says he will leave it to God to determine
the ruler, hardly what one would expect of a cunning military tactician.
It seems
insanely risky, this decision of David’s to let Saul go when he could have
permanently destroyed his one-time mentor. Yet it typifies David’s grand faith,
his total ability to trust more in God than in himself, on those occasions when
he resisted his impulses to act rashly and worry about the consequences later.
May we do the same in our relationships with friend and foe alike.
Action
Pray today
for a current or former enemy—and for yourself, that the venom inside you may
be released and replaced with compassion.
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