“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

(Ephesians 4:32 ESV)

“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

(Matthew 5:44 ESV)

Many years ago, I had a friend who got her feelings hurt over any little thing. We went to grade school together. I don’t know what I said to her that made her so mad that she stopped talking to me.

But people get their feelings hurt over little things that get blown out of proportion. Even churches have problems with hurt feelings or misunderstandings. The church I grew up in split. I still don’t know why. 

Google defines hurt feelings as: “sadness or unhappiness caused by someone’s actions or words.” Google defines misunderstanding as: “a failure to understand something correctly.” I have been on both ends. I have had hurt feelings and misunderstandings. Neither accomplish anything.

In my opinion, hurt feelings and misunderstandings are caused by the devil. He loves to stir trouble in our lives. But we don’t have to let him. We have armor to fight back with. Jesus goes before us to help us fight. More often than not, He has already fought the battle before we knew a war was waged. That’s the kind of fight I like. The kind I don’t have to fight.  I say take a lesson from Matthew 5:44: “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (ESV)

Love your enemies. I agree. That’s hard to do. It’s even harder to pray for those who persecute you. I’ve tried. It’s really hard to pray for them. But that’s not the point. The point is to pray and ask God to show you the truth. Before you go off and accuse someone of hurting your feelings, ask God about it. He will show you the truth. 

I wonder what ever happened to my former friend. I need to apologize for whatever I might have said or done. 

Have a blessed day, everyone. 

Kathy Keller
Writer and Prayer warrior with Answers2Prayer Ministries
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