The invincible weapon against
all our enemies is humility.
~ Theophan the Recluse
Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
~ Abraham Lincoln
Jesus does not call us to do what he did, but to be as he was, permeated with love. Then the doing of what he did and said becomes the natural expression of who we are in him.
~ Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God
Anger always thinks it has power beyond its power.
~ Publilius Syrus, 85-43 BC, Sententiae
For some, faith begins with a hard shell, a rigid set of answers and platitudes that keep them safe but eventually prevent them from growing into who they could be. The system that was initially protecting them now traps them.
~ Luke Norsworthy, pastor & author
Bold love is courageously setting aside our personal agenda to move humbly into the world of others with their well-being in view, willing to risk further pain in our souls, in order to be an aroma of life to some and the aroma of death to others.
~ Dan Allender, psychologist and author, Director of the Allender Center
I think Jesus meant something different when He said “enemies.” He meant we should love the people we don’t understand. The ones we disagree with. The ones who are flat wrong about more than a couple of things. I have plenty of those people in my life, and my bet is you do too. In fact, I might be one of those people sometimes.
~ Bob Goff, 1959- , author, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love
Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. ‘The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared’ (Luther).
~ Dietrich Bonhöffer, from Life Together