Lesson 239 - LIFE'S GREAT OBSESSION (Proverbs: "The Get Smart Book")

By Frank Eiklor and the Shalom Team

"When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." Proverbs 16:7

Is there someone who considers you his/her enemy? Or someone that you consider your enemy? It might even be a hidden wall of enmity in your heart where you really can't stand the other person even though you're stuck with their presence and try to hide your feelings. Look at our scripture again and we'll find God's plan for eliminating most of our enemies.

That's because it all starts with you and me. We claim Jesus as the Captain of our salvation, and so He is. But it is because His ways pleased His Father - submitting to the indignity of the Cross in humble obedience - that we were turned from being God's enemies (Romans 5:10) into being called "friends." (John 15:15)

That's why today's scripture is not passive but active. It assumes we are going all out to please our Lord and not ourselves, and this includes complying with His orders on how to treat an enemy. Jesus commands us to do four things to enemies: 1) love them (like Jesus loved His enemies), 2) bless them (wanting God's best, not His worst, for them), 3) do good to them (deliberate acts of kindness whenever possible), and 4) pray for them (note the three "musts" that must precede our prayers for God to touch their lives (He must first touch ours!).

This puts us on the road to overcoming evil with good and creates the possibility of God turning war into peace. What about those who choose to remain your enemies? Even King Saul, though unrepentant, admitted that David's loving kindness in the face of his own hatred would bring the Lord's deliverance and blessing on the future king. "When a man's ways please the Lord... " should be life's great obsession!

My prayer: "Just as Your ways, Lord Jesus, pleased the Father, so work in me until my ways please You."

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras

Related Articles · More Articles

Lesson 260 - THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST: SIGNS OF THE TIMES (PART 4)

Jesus said many would come in His name and deceive the hearts of the simple, sinful and proud. Eastern mysticism and meditation is a big thing in the gullible West. And one day a “world leader” will appear on the scene with the persuasion of a god and the heart of a devil. Jesus warns His children to know the Scriptures, live in obedience to the Father’s will, and stay alert to the signs of the times.

Lesson 259 - THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST: SIGNS OF THE TIMES (PART 3)

They laugh no more. Now God’s description of how He will destroy the old earth and create a new one makes perfect sense. The splitting of the atom turned many skeptics into believers. After all, look what man himself is capable of doing with the atom and hydrogen bombs. Now the fear is that nuclear weapons are being placed in the hands of madmen who wish to annihilate their enemies.

Lesson 258 - THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST: SIGNS OF THE TIMES (PART 2)

God has blessed man with incredible genius. We stand in awe as we watch men and women in a room full of computers and high-tech instruments guiding and landing spacecraft on distant planets. At that moment, we appear invincible. But then a mammoth tornado comes—or a terrifying hurricane—or rains that flood whole regions and never listen to our shouts to “Stop!”—or the shake that removes from under our feet any confidence or pride we carry, and leaves us numb with hardly enough breath to even utter the paralyzing word “EARTHQUAKE!”. And man is helpless in the face of it all!

Back To Archives