When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him. 

• PROVERBS 16:7 

A Confederate soldier was on sentry duty on the edge of a wood. It was a dark night and very cold, and he was a little frightened because the enemy was supposed to be near at hand. He felt very homesick and miserable, and about midnight, when everything was very still, he was beginning to feel very weary and thought that he would comfort himself by praying and singing a hymn. He remembered singing this hymn – 

“All my trust on Thee is stayed,

All my help from Thee I bring,

Cover my defenseless head

With the shadow of Thy wing.” 

After he had sung those words a strange peace came down upon him, and through the long night he remembered having felt no more fear. 

“Now,” said another man, “listen to my story. I was a Union soldier, and was in the wood that night with a party of scouts. I saw you standing up, although I didn’t see your face, and my men had their rifles focused upon you waiting the word to fire, but when you sang out:

“Cover my defenseless head

with the shadow of Thy wing.”

I said, ‘Boys, put down your rifles; we will go home.’ I couldn’t kill you after that.” 

• DWIGHT L. MOODY 

Pray About It: 

You have prayed for your enemies, but are you aware that God will make even your enemies to be at peace with you? Continue to pray for them today. Don’t pray that they come around to your way of thinking. Pray for God to bless them. You’ll get a blessing too. 

“If we could only read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”

• HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW