Welcome to the Feminid podcast. This is Nancy Wilson. Thanks so much for joining you today.

I wanted to give our adversaries and our enemies a shout out today because they give us so much to be grateful for.

We have countless benefits that they bring us, which is not at all

what they set out to do for sure. Nevertheless, they do bring us serious blessings that we would not get

any other way than when they lie and slander us. First, they give us an opportunity to please and obey

God. Jesus said to love our enemies, bless those who

curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us.

If we had no enemies, we would have no opportunity to obey Jesus' words here. So our adversaries

really are a gift to us. We pray that God will bless them, that he will

enable us to love them. And since he is the one who has given us these enemies, we pray that he will

also give us opportunities to do them good. Peter tells us that these haters are a source of

tremendous blessing to us, because when they reproach us,

criticize, and condemn us, we are blessed. This is what Peter tells us in 1. Peter 414.

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you? For the spirit of glory and of God

rest upon you. On their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part,

he is glorified. Because the Spirit of glory and of God rest on us when they reproach us, it is a positive

blessing. And since that is the case, then God bless those enemies who give us an opportunity

to glorify our good and great God.

They mean it for our harm, but God overrides their motives and he uses it for our blessing.

However, he will deal with them, which is why we don't need to worry about it.

Most of these people are cowards, and they will be judged for their behavior and their blasphemy.

But meanwhile, we are being blessed.

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