Groundhog Day?

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Matthew 5:43-44 says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” 

     There is a film called “GroundHog Day” where a man keeps living the same twenty-four hour day, over and over  and over.  Sometimes I feel that I am caught up in the same situation, only, I am not living over the same day but some things keep happening that are so similar that it almost feels like it.  It seems to be a complex lesson that God is teaching me through a series of circumstances.  The other day, i made a comment to one of the staff and one other staff member said, “Mr. Freeland, Haven’t you learned your lesson?”  I guess not.  I hope it doesn’t keep on happening, but it may until I learn a couple of lessons involved in this particular temptation.

      The above passage was one that I just used rather recently and for the same reason I am using it today.  The same temptation came up and I fell for it again and then became mad at the individual that caused it so my lesson is going to be twofold in that I need to recognize the temptation before it blossoms and second, I need to have a forgiving heart to the person who instigated the temptation.  Crooks are crooks and liars are liars, but it is up to God to do the vengeance, not me.  My natural desire is to have them hang by their toes but that is just my flesh speaking.    I have made some progress in that I saw the warning signs and began to question the person that was speaking with me via texting.  A picture was sent to me which was appropriate in every way but I did a reverse facial recognition on the photo and found it to be of an actress and not the individual.  While my problems in this area are not the issue, but that of forgiveness for the people that are deliberately taking advantage of others.  My attitude should be to pray for them “who despitefully use me…”  Again, my initial thought is to pray for fire to come down and burn them up like toast, but that is not what God means by the above statement.  My prayer should be for their salvation and for a lasting relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and that God would then bless them in their new walk in Christ..Maybe then, I will hear God saying, “Dan, have you learned your lesson yet?”  Then I will be able to move on to the next test.  Probably, until I learn this one, I will be stuck in how to pray for my enemies.  Praise God today for His continual chipping away of everything that does not look like the Lord Jesus Christ,