Saturday, 4 December 2010

Praying for our enemies

Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. While we can pray for protection, and that God will execute justice when we are being mistreated, the implication of Jesus' words is that we are praying for goodness in the lives of our enemies.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44)
Leanne Payne gives some suggestions on how we can pray for our enemies. She says that our prayer for ourselves in such situations is: for endurance in persecution, for the ability to love from God, and that we will not act in a sinful way that brings our enemy harm.

Her principles for praying for our enemies are to ask that:
  1. The eyes of all who surround these people will be opened to see the situation as it really is.
  2. Their associates will be given ways to speak truth and light into the situation.
  3. Any demonic power within these people or situations manifest itself—that it may be clearly discerned and seen by all.
  4. What can be salvaged (in the situation and the lives of your enemies) be saved, humbled, and blessed by the Spirit of God.
She recommends prayer for those engaging such people, and suggests that much damage is done to evil when truth is revealed.

2 comments:

  1. I've had to learn this the hard way. The more you fight with people, the more they dig in. The worst possible outcome for some of them is when you stop fighting because at that point, they are shown for what they are.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Useful lesson MikeT.

    It can be hard to love our enemies, but it is important as transformed lives are exceedingly important, and probably the greatest delight.

    ReplyDelete

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