Praying for My Enemies

This is another Stormie’s heart that Lord wants me to post. So here is it:

God asks us to forgive and love our enemies and even to pray for them. And that’s hard to do. But the reason He asks us to do that is not so we can help them feel good about what they’ve done. It’s that God hates all sin, and our unforgiveness is a sin too. You may be thinking, How bad is my unforgiveness compared to what that person did to me, or what those people did to my people?

But God says that all sin is bad. Jesus tells us to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matthew 5:44). If we don’t love, forgive, and pray for our enemies, the evil won’t stop – it will just continue to perpetuate itself.

Unforgiveness fuels the constant fighting year after year in certain parts of the world where people or groups vent their hatred and take revenge on each other. Without forgiveness, the cycle of hatred never ends.

One of the best reasons to be free of unforgiveness is so our prayers will not be hindered. When we harbor evil in our hearts, we put up a wall between us and God. And the wall must be thick because it keeps Him from hearing our prayers. ‘The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous’ (Proverbs 15:29).

Even prayers for our enemies must be prayed from a right heart. ‘And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins’ (Mark 11:25). If we don’t forgive our enemies, God doesn’t forgive us for our sins or answer our prayers as we would like Him to.

God says, ‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…a time for war and a time for peace’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1,8). God is God of justice, and He promises that the wicked will pay for their crimes. ‘The wicked will not go unpunished’ (Proverbs 11:21). ‘I, the Lord, love justice’ (Isaiah 61:8)

When we forgive people who have done evil against us, they will still have to account for what they have done. If they need to be corrected, we can pray for them and commit them to the Lord so He can do that.

If they remain unrepentant and steadfastly devoted to sin, if they continue to set against living God’s way, then their future is not bright. The Bible says, ‘It is a dreadful thing to fall into hands of the living God’ (Hebrews 10:31)

Let’s commit those who hurt us into the Lord’s hands and pray that they will have an encounter with the living God so they can be transformed by the power of His Holy Spirit. How much better than the sweet taste of revenge that turns bitter in our souls, or the reaping of consequences for our own sin of unforgiveness, would be our enemies’ transformation into a devoted follower of Christ. Only God, through prayer, can accomplish all that.

For me, I know that when someone is up to evil, the idea of the plan is not from him rather from the devil. So, I surely will forgive them and pray for them. I want to remain peaceful in my heart so that blessings can flow through. Also, I know that person need help.

Recently, 2 boys in JC class bullied her. One held her feet and refused to let go and another removed his shoe and used that shoe to hit on JC’s injured knee till bleeding. As a mum, yes, I was mad that they did that to my girl. How can they bully my beloved daughter!!!

Besides writing a letter to let the teacher know about this case, I pray for Lord’s hand to be manifested on the 2 boys to judge their adversary and bless and restore them. Then, I plea the blood of Jesus over them.

These 2 boys are notorious for being naughty in class; they fight with each other and hit others. Ever since the prayer, JC told me yesterday that one of the boy lightly touched her shoulder. Today, the boys did not touch her and they did not fight with each other too. Praise the Lord!