Love your enemies.

 Here is a poem weaving a prayer to God with the challenging scripture about loving enemies, acknowledging the struggle while seeking divine help:

# Scorched Grace

(A Prayer on Loving Enemies)

**Lord, this command sits heavy, hard to hold –**

"Love your enemies," the ancient text unfolds

(Matthew 5:44, a piercing, holy light),

It scorches pride, disrupts my sense of right.

To bless the cursing, pray for those who rend?

This isn't instinct, God; it's You I need to mend

This fractured will, this heart inclined to fight,

And kindle love where bitterness takes flight.

**"Father, forgive them," echoed on the tree**

(Luke 23:34), Your perfect plea for me,

And those who drove the nails, who mocked Your pain –

Your love embraced them, washing every stain.

*If You loved thus, while suffering the blow,*

*Then teach my stubborn spirit how to grow*

*Beyond the hurt, the justified disdain,*

*To see the soul behind the causing pain.*

**"Do not be overcome by evil's night,"**

**"But overcome with good," make darkness bright**

(Romans 12:21). Not with teeth gritted tight,

But actions fueled by Heaven's purer might.

A cup of water for the parching foe?

A prayer whispered where harsh words would go?

This is the battlefield where You invite

My soul to conquer hate with Love's own might.

**"He causes sun to rise on just and wrong,"**

**"The righteous and unrighteous" all belong

Beneath Your common grace, Your patient rain

(Matthew 5:45). Help me see the plain,

Unvarnished truth: they breathe the air You give,

They too are souls for whom You died to live.

Break down the wall my wounded heart has built;

Dissolve the poison of resentment spilt.

**"Heap burning coals" (Proverbs 25:21-22),**

**Not of revenge, but kindness strong and true,**

**By meeting malice with a gentle hand,**

**Perhaps a softening You alone have planned.**

**For only Love, Your Love, divine and deep,**

**Can wake the soul from hatred's restless sleep.**

**Lord, grant this grace – when bitter waters flow,**

**Make love my weapon, make Your mercy show.**

**So here I stand, Lord, weak and reaching high –**

**Take this resentment, let true love reply.**

**Fill me with You, till enemy and friend**

**Are seen through eyes that seek Your Kingdom's end.**

**For in the loving of the hardest face,**

**I touch the hem of Your amazing grace.**

**Amen.**

## Key Scriptures Woven In

*   **Matthew 5:44:** The core command ("Love your enemies... pray for those who persecute you").

*   **Luke 23:34:** Jesus' prayer for forgiveness for His executioners.

*   **Romans 12:21:** Overcoming evil with good.

*   **Matthew 5:45:** God's common grace for all.

*   **Proverbs 25:21-22 / Romans 12:20:** Showing kindness to an enemy ("heaping burning coals" - a metaphor for potentially awakening their conscience through unexpected goodness).

The poem acknowledges the difficulty, grounds the command in Christ's own example and God's universal grace, and pleads for divine empowerment to actually live out this radical, counter-intuitive love.