The Real Reward

Have there ever been people that you simply just don't like? Or people that for no apparent reason don't like you? 


Luke 6:35, "But love your enemies and be kind and do good [doing favors so that someone derives benefit from them] and lend, expecting and hoping for nothing in return but considering nothing as lost and despairing of no one; and then your recompense (your reward) will be great (rich, strong, intense, and abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind and charitable and good to the ungrateful and the selfish and wicked." 
What is this telling us? It says to love our enemies. The Bible does a really good job of wording things in such a way that we really want to do them, and then the time comes to put it into practice and you realize that it's not all so easy. So, love your enemies...what's this mean exactly? It means to walk in love..always. Walk in love regardless what's going on around you. Love is the basis and the foundation for everything. Without love, we have nothing. It's what holds everything else together. I know it's easier said than done; trust me. It's especially hard when you know someone doesn't like you, and you have no idea why. You're around that person and you feel tension. With me, I hate conflict. I absolutely hate it. And I stay away from it as much as I possibly can. So, when I'm around someone who I know doesn't like me I tend to get really quiet and hide myself. But no, that's not what we're called to do as Christians. We're called to walk in love. To show love to that person no matter how they treat us.
When we walk in love, we walk in the love of God. And when we walk in love with our enemies the love of God is shown to them. And it's HIS love that changes people, changes hearts, changes nations. Also, it's the love of God that makes us stronger and makes us confident. It matters very little what people say, do, or think. We know that our God loves us and we can walk in the confidence. And that confidence gives us the strength to walk in and love those who hate us. What's the gain in loving those who already love you? The real reward is loving those who are hard to love. We just need to get past ourselves, past our own emotions and love on the person in front of us.