“The Unlovable Guard” is November 2’s entry from Dr. David Jeremiah’s ‘Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions’ (2014).
"If we love one another,
God abides in us,
and His love has been perfected in us."
1 John 4:12
In the mid-1930s, a German Protestant pastor was abducted from his church. Suspected of aiding and abetting Jews, he was thrown into prison without a hearing, a trial, or even a phone call to his family. The prison guard outside his cell hated everyone associated with Jews. He purposely skipped the pastor’s cell when meals were handed out, made him go weeks without a shower, and gave him the most difficult jobs on the labor gang. The pastor, on the other hand, prayed that he would be able to love this guard with God’s love.
As the months went by, the pastor smiled at the guard, thanked him for the few meals he did receive, and even talked to him about agape love. The guard never said anything, but he heard it all, and one night he cracked a smile. The next day the pastor received two meals and was able to shower for as long as he wanted. Finally, one afternoon the guard personally made the long-awaited call to the pastor’s family, and a few months later, he was released.
It is against our human nature to love someone like that prison guard, but through His power, God can give us the ability to love the unlovable.
To end, a quote from Thomas Green, “The love, even for your enemies, which Jesus commands, is not our work but His work in us.”
