As we pray for our enemies, we can pray that God will work in their lives because of this offense to bring about His purposes. We should pray that God keeps our hearts soft toward the offenders so that His goodness will be revealed to them through us.Ĥ. Satan desires discord, so he tries to stir up our fury and coaches us to respond in kind. It’s what turning the other cheek is all about (see Matthew 5:39). Nothing is more convicting than a gentle response to a hateful, rude action. But when we respond with kindness, gentleness, and mercy, the situation is often diffused within moments. When we return anger for anger, wrong for wrong, we put ourselves on the same level as our enemy. “ A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). When we pray for our enemies, we can ask that our hearts will remain soft and useful if the Lord wants to use us to accomplish His plan in the lives of our enemies. When we pray for our enemies to repent, we know we are praying in accordance with God’s will because He also desires their repentance (2 Peter 3:9).ģ. Second Timothy 2:25 says that “opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.” It is God who softens hearts enough for repentance. As we pray for our enemies, we can pray for their repentance. We can pray that God will open their hearts with understanding so that they will learn from their mistakes and grow wiser.Ģ. They are reacting from the flesh instead of responding from the Spirit. When enemies set themselves against us, they lack understanding. We can pray that God will “open the eyes of their hearts that they will be enlightened” about truth (Ephesians 1:18). So how do we pray for those who have hurt us and never tried to make it right?ġ. They may not be valid reasons, but they seem so to the ones who hold them. People do what they do for their own reasons. None of this excuses their behavior or minimizes the damage they cause, but it helps to explain the why of the matter. Their actions may have been manipulated by peer influences (2 Kings 12:13–14). Their attitudes may have been shaped by past wounds (Judges 15:7). Their thinking may be influenced by the devil (2 Corinthians 4:4). The enemies we pray for hurt us from their own world of hurt. When Jesus said, “They don’t know what they are doing,” He hinted at an important factor to keep in mind when we pray for our enemies. They had no idea what was actually taking place. Jesus had compassion on the deceived people who believed they were doing the right thing by killing the Son of God. He did not ask for their destruction He did not pray for revenge. He talked to His Father about the people who were harming Him. In the middle of His own agony, He cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Jesus gave us a perfect example of praying for our enemies when He was being nailed to a cross. So, Jesus had enemies, and, when He said to pray for our enemies, He knew what He was talking about. His friends deserted Him in His worst moment (Mark 14:50), and the city who had cried “ Hosanna!” when He arrived in town shouted “Crucify Him!” a few days later (Mark 15:13). His own family was ashamed of Him and tried to make Him stop preaching (Mark 3:21). The religious leaders mocked and tried to trap Him (John 8:6). His own people rejected His message (John 1:11). He demonstrated that standard by never retaliating when someone wronged Him. However, Jesus calls us to a higher standard. They smeared our reputation we’ll smear theirs, too. They gossiped about us we’ll gossip about them. When someone sets out to cause us harm, our natural reaction is to protect ourselves and fight back. He had something better in mind that will benefit us as well as our enemies. But that is not what Jesus meant by praying for our enemies. When someone wrongs us, we’d like to pray that disaster falls on them! We may be tempted to pray the imprecatory psalms and hope to sit back and watch God exact vengeance on the evildoers, much like Jonah did outside of Nineveh. Our first response to that question is probably not the right one. In Matthew 5:43–45, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” It is clear that Jesus expects us to pray for our enemies, but how do we do that? Most familiar to us is the passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Several places in the Bible command us to pray for our enemies (Luke 6:27, 35 Romans 12:20).
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