Feb. 26, 2025

Frenemies

Show Notes
Transcript

Have you ever found it challenging to love those who seem unlovable?

In today's episode of My Morning Devotional, hosts Gaby Alessi guide us through the profound and difficult topic of loving our enemies, inspired by the words of Jesus in Luke 6. Drawing from personal reflections and biblical teachings, Gaby discusses this concept of 'Frenemies'—those who are neither full friends nor foes—and how we can extend love and grace towards them. She highlights that loving those who may not reciprocate such feelings can allow us to grow closer to the example Jesus set, demonstrating true, unconditional compassion. Gaby shares how this challenging task is not only a pathway to becoming more like Jesus but also a source of divine favor and strength.

Join Gaby for this insightful and uplifting devotional as she encourages listeners to embrace the challenge of love and forgiveness, promising a transformative grace that mirrors the love Jesus has shown us all.

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Transcript

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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1213. Today's Devo is called Frenemies. Hey there. We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time.

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That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Well, welcome back, everybody. Happy Wednesday. Gabby Lessi, your host here. And I want to apologize. I know people message me and they're like, don't apologize for your long episodes, but there's a lot of you that are trying to get in and get out in the five minutes. And so I apologize. This week has been long. I am very excited to share more things about my relationship and my engagement.

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So I. I'm sorry for that. But today we're gonna. We're gonna actually change gears, shift gears a little bit, and we're gonna talk about this idea of Frenemies. There's a Post Malone song, used to have friends, but I got enemies. But today we're gonna say, used to have friends, but I got Frenemies.

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And we're gonna look at the book of Luke 6, Luke chapter 6, verse 27 and 28. And we are wrapping up the month of February. It's crazy that we're at the end of February already and February is the love month. And. And so I want to talk about this idea of loving your neighbor, but more importantly, loving your enemies. And so Luke

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27, this is Jesus telling us, but to you who are listening, I say this. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.

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Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. In verse 32, 36, Jesus continues. He says, look, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?

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Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from who you expect repayment, what credit. What credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything back, then your reward will be great, and you will be the children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful man. This is a Hard one, guys. This is difficult because I. I just want to talk about loving the people around you. Love everybody, love this, love that. And it just is simple to kind of talk about those.

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And I love that Jesus says it. It's easy to love the people that love you. Even the sinners do that. Even people that don't follow God's word and that don't have a relationship with the Lord, they love those that love them. You see so many different worldly people. Let's just say there's a lot of worldly people out there that have this idea of, well, I'm just going to do what I want to do and I'm just going to live off of the support of those who love me. And that's what they're doing. They love people that love them. They. They're going to have the relationships with those that love them.

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But. But the minute somebody disagrees with them, the minute somebody goes against them, the minute somebody may not be in alignment, what they believe or what they think, they cut them off and they X them out of their relationship. They ax them out of their lives. You know what's so sad is that there's a lot of believers out there that do the same.

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There's a lot of believers and worldly people that look the same and act the same when it comes to their relationships.

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There's a lot of believers out there that say, well, if you don't agree with what I'm doing and you don't agree with my beliefs and you don't then unfollow me, don't be in relationship with me, just cut me out of your life.

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I don't believe that should be true. I think Jesus is telling us, guys, that's not how you should handle it whatsoever. This isn't a, if you don't agree with me, get off my page. This is a if you don't agree with me, I want to pray for you. I want you to know I love you. Because Jesus is saying, it's easy to love somebody that loves you, but there's a reward when you love somebody that hates you. There's a lot of hate in the world right now. There's a lot of people that don't like each other in the world right now. There's a lot of reasons to hate in the world right now. We can't ignore that. Jesus isn't talking about, hey, guys, you don't have a reason to hate them. Guys, get over that.

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No, he's saying, you have every reason to hate Them, but you still have to love them because there's a reward for you. You're going to be called a child of the most high when you love those who hate you. You won't get anything if you love the person that loves you. But when you love the person that hates you and that you hate, there's a reward for that. I call you child, I call you daughter. I call you son. When you're able to do that. And why does Jesus say that? Because that's what Jesus did. When we love our enemies or our frenemies, we are walking and living and acting like Jesus. We are becoming more like Jesus. As people were, were making fun of him, as people were spitting on him, as they were mocking him, as they were trading their clothes. And he says, father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. He looks at, at a, at a murderer, at somebody that's next to him and he's.

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And the person says, the man says to him, let me experience paradise with you.

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And Jesus says, you will. The next time I see you will be in paradise. Jesus is looking at people that hate him and that probably the flesh part of Jesus is not in alignment with them. But he says, I love them and I forgive them. So let that be a reminder for us, Jesus. If Jesus was able to forgive those that killed him, murdered him, murdered him, and put him on that cross, I truly believe we can love and we can forgive whatever someone's done to us. So let that be your challenge today. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you without expecting anything back. Lord, we thank you for today. We thank you for this challenge. Father God, this isn't easy whatsoever, especially for some of us that are listening, that have been through experiences and have been hurt by people that do not deserve this love whatsoever. But Father, if Jesus, if your son was able to do this, then God give us the ability and the strength to do this as well. And Father, I believe that when we start to act and we start to love those that hate us, there's going to be a grace that comes upon us and blessings and favor that comes upon us. And forgiveness is going to come over us for those people.

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And it's going to be a forgiveness that we didn't bring. It was from the Father himself, self. And I'm believing that's going to come over every single listener. When we love those who hate us, who persecute us, who curse us. I just believe that a blessing is going to come over us. A grace and a mercy is just going to come over us to the top of our head, to the soles of our feet. It's going to cover us just like the blood of Jesus covers us.

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And let us see everything through forgiveness. Let us see everything through love.

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And let us see everything through your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for it all. In Jesus name, Amen. So there you have it.

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Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend.

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Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.