Week 17 Day 1

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Love Your Enemies

Abstain from all appearance of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:22

Our Saviour by a heavenly birth

Calls us to holiness on earth,

Bids us our former follies hate,

And from the wicked separate.

We must have holy hearts and hands,

And feet that go where he commands;

A holy will to keep his ways,

And holy lips to speak his praise.

Lincoln didn’t enjoy tromping all over people. He had no desire to climb the ladder at someone else’s expense. “It is no pleasure to me to triumph over anyone,” he said. Lincoln admonished others to stand for what was true without putting other people down. His humble, poverty-stricken conditions probably served him well, giving him the view from the bottom of the barrel. He saw life from an underdog’s perspective, and he had no appreciation for those who tried to keep a man down. Do you gloat in the defeat of another? Try loving your enemies, because someday you may be the defeated one looking for a friend.