“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”
-Matthew 5:44
Enemies! No way! Who wants to pray for the one who has hurt so deep. The one whom had penetrated your heart with firey arrows and left them there for our souls to burn. The man I was married to had hurt me so deeply, I never knew one man can have so much anger and hatred inside. But our gracious loving God commands us to first forgive the ones who harm us and then second pray for them. Forgiveness is not for the other person but for our very self. This will have to be a whole different blog coming soon, definitely. But for now I want to focus on praying for the man who has wronged us whether it be us personally or a loved one. In my experience praying for the man I married did not come the moment I decided to leave him, nor did it come the moment I accepted Christ back into my life, it would take almost 3 years after our separation for me to fall to my knees and pray for the man I once loved very deeply. A few years ago God started tugging at my heart to pray for him. My only thought was, “no way, no how, that man deserves to go to hell and there is no way I am going to pray he will accept Christ and have a chance to go to Heaven, NOPE NOT GOING TO DO IT! “. Days go by and month later I still feel God telling me to pray for this man. I ignore God. I continue with my protest. Then I go to therapy one day provided by a local Christian church. I walk in and the lady asks if I pray for the man who harmed me. I looked her straight in the eyes and said “Nope!” She proceeded to counsel me on God’s grace and how it’s not up to you nor I to decided who is worthy of the grace God gives. That broke me down to step two. Instead of saying he didn’t deserve grace or to know God, I started agreeing that he is worthy of the grace but I will not be the one praying foe him. Someone else can pray for him and I will not be adding him to any of the prayer lists I know. Fast forward another 6 months to a year and I reach step 3, I begin asking others to pray for this mans foolish soul. I still refuse to pray myself. I shift responsibility off to someone else who may not have even met the person. Finally, one day, April 15, 2014, I got it. I chose to fast on this day. I always enjoy fasting, it brings me closer to God and makes me more aware of the areas in my life I may be struggling. In the middle of the day God personally in a Loud and persistent voice commanded me to pray for the one who harmed me in the most defiling way. Bringing my attention to the prayer I need to pray every day. God gave me the words to say and on a daily basis I began praying for this man. As I prayed I began seeing the healing not only in myself but also my relationships with other males in my life began flourishing. Sometimes we resist something or an idea so much cause we believe its going to hurt us or we want to be selfish but in the end, God always knows whats best for us. We must call upon his name and do as he commands even if it seems painful or not fair.
Simple Prayer: Lord Jesus I pray that you be with _______. Change his/her heart. Give him/her eyes to see what he/she has done to their life. Help him/her to discover your plans for their life and the salvation only you can give him/her. In Jesus name, Amen
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