**Daily Devotional** **October 23** *35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. - Luke 6:35-36 (KJV)* This is hard for us humans to do, as to love our enemies is just against our human nature. Some find it hard to love even those that love them, and impossible to love someone that hates you. The only way that we can love our enemies, is to die to ourselves, and let Christ live through us, as God is love (1 John 4:8), and with God’s kind of AGAPE love, we can unconditionally love even those that hate us. All Christians should do good, and lend to those in need, not expecting anything in return, as that is the kind of love that God has, and we should show to others. We should represent our Father, as we, who are born again, are His children, and how we treat others should bring glory to Him (1 Peter 1:15). God extends His love to all people, even to those that hate Him and are unthankful for the blessings that we all enjoy – so we need to be like Him. God has shown great mercy, even in the Old Testament when He had to punish Israel for their many sins, He did so with regret (Jeremiah 29:11), as God wanted to bless them instead of having to curse them. We need to be merciful to all people, in all situations, as God is so very merciful to us to forgive all our sins (Jeremiah 31:34), and bring us back into fellowship with Him (John 17:3), even though we don’t deserve it. Praise God for His love and mercy to us who love Him, and even to those that don’t, as He wishes for all to repent and be saved (2 Peter 3:9). Thank you Lord for all our blessings. Devotional by Pastor Joe W. Green, www.infinite-faith.com