“You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, love your enemies,
bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;
for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
Matthew 5:43-46

So here is the Lord asking what seems impossible. Don’t think he doesn’t know how deeply hurts can overcome us. He knows. But the Lord does NOT ask the impossible from us. He has two purposes in this.

1. It shows you your true condition, your anger, your desire for revenge, all of which are sinful regardless of the cause. He desires that you truly acknowledge your sinfulness and your inability to do what he says to do.

2. If we know that what he asks is impossible to us, then we understand that the only way to do it is to go to him, confess our inability, our anger, our self-pity, our desire for revenge, and ASK for the grace, the enabling, the ability, to forgive from the heart.

You CANNOT do it in your strength, but with his enabling you can do anything.

“I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in me, and I in him,
bears much fruit;
FOR WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING.”
John 15:5

But…

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13

ASK therefore.