Raining Love
I love rain, especially at night. What about you? After I’m lulled to sleep by the sound of rain pellets hitting the roof, I always wake up more refreshed, as if God tucked me in with an extra blanket of peace before I dozed off.
The Bible tells us many times over that rain is a gift that God gives to everyone, both believers and non-believers. Matthew 5:45 says, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
However, in that same passage, Jesus draws an interesting analogy. He compares the rain to love. He says like rain is a gift given to all, we should also pour down love on our enemies as well as our friends. We are asked to give them an undeserved gift no matter how they’ve hurt us, betrayed us, abandoned us or humiliated us. Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?”
Jesus is telling us it’s easy to love the ones who treat you right, but not so easy to love those who don’t, so he issues the challenge in Matthew 5:43: “Love your enemies.”
Who are your enemies? How do you feel about them?
I’ve come to believe that holding a grudge or resenting another person can cause a spiritual drought in my life. It can lead me to a dry valley where I spend countless hours analyzing why that person acted the way they did towards me, or why they don’t seem to care for me. But if I flip it, and choose to spend time loving them unconditionally, then their feelings are their problem, not mine. I rain love, not damaging hail.
Jesus says one way we can love those who persecute us is to pray for them. It’s a discipline, but I’ve learned to do that. How about you? Someone I counseled once was in a difficult marriage situation, and I asked her, “Do you pray for your husband?” She told me she was so angry at him, she couldn’t. I told her, “If you don’t pray for him, who will?” In this case, the wounded wife needed to rain love through prayer, not hate.
What happens after the rain passes? The grass looks greener, the flowers bloom, and birds chirp happily.
The land has been refreshed.
In the same way, when we rain love on the land of people in our lives, we will be refreshed, and better able to focus on the Rain Giver. God loves all people so much, he not only provides undeserved showers of blessings, but also a way to spend eternity with him. Now that’s a downpour of love!
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) LBW
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