“…pray for those who persecute you…”
How am I expected to pray for those who have hurt me? Are against me? Harass me? Ghost me?
Remember: when the person at work, the friend betrayed, the family member refused to forgive and reconcile? The feelings of hurt, anger, being misunderstood, judged, or maybe it was outright unfair, unnecessary, and unkind!?
Rather than lessen over time, our emotions agitate like clothes in the dryer that are tossed about being kept fresh, but no one will remove them. Each interaction or memory flings our feelings around, reactivating the pain.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5: 43-44, NASB, bold added).
One of Jesus’ teaching tactics in his sermon on the mount, recorded in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, was to start with “you have heard it said.” Jesus then spun the familiar thinking and landed on a weightier heart-level meaning with a call to action. Jesus used this tactic when teaching about the commission to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us.
Many translations summarize the picture of loving our enemies with the charge to pray. A few translations layer the loving of our enemies from Matthew 5 verse 44 into three parts, like the King James Version. “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
This call to love, defined through blessing our enemies and doing good to them, suddenly makes the prayer part of this equation look like the wrinkle-free option.
We may struggle with praying for those involved with our painful situations, but was Jesus asking us to love through blessing them and doing acts of kindness too? (Verse 44)
In his sermon on the mount concerning our enemies, Jesus called us to a weightier heart level of love. He linked our actions of love as demonstrative of our status as children of God and challenged us to look at our heart’s motives.
“In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that” (Matthew 5:45-47 NLT).
To use a Jesus tactic, you have heard it said, “prayer changes things.” Prayer is powerful in changing many situations, but prayer goes to work first in our hearts. Prayer transforms our hardened hearts into a heart more willing to love, forgive, bless, and do good for those who have become our enemies.
Prayer pushes the stop button on the dryer, pulls out the laundry of our emotions, folds them, and puts them away. A fresh scent replaces stale and musty. There is also a sense of freedom from letting go and moving on; our emotional dryer no longer reminds us of brokenness and unfinished business.
A clean heart has space to love, and love completes. “Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action” (1 John 3:18, HCSB). Love moves toward the Father and responds in a God-honoring way. God-sized love enables us to move past the easy-to-love and engage the unlovable.
We are not left to our management of the situation calling us to love through prayer, blessing, and actions of our own will. “…God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (1 John 4:12b, NLT). We are empowered through God in us. His power is activated through a heart first bent in prayer for those who curse us, hate us, and despitefully use us and persecute us.
When we are honest with God about our emotions and ask him to enter our pain, the impossible is to be expected. We need to pour out our anguish and ask for healing of our wounded hearts. We need to solicit the Almighty to do through us what we are incapable of doing on our own. Then the Spirit will graciously lead us to any action required besides prayer.
And when you love your enemies by praying for them, “in that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:45).
I pray that your heart will be softened as you bow your head and ask for God’s help with your attitude toward those who have wounded you. May you experience healing and wholeness as you release your hurt to him. May his power well up in you to love in ways you never thought possible. May you become a blessing to many as you obediently pray for those who persecute you. In Jesus’ name, so be it.
Meditate: God, I need you
Reflect: Is there any hurtful situation you need to bring to Jesus? What emotions are being tossed around in your emotional dryer? Would you consider pulling these emotions out by writing them down and asking God to heal each one? Is God prompting you to any action of kindness? What would showing compassion look like for you, if you followed through?
Rooted: Psalm 73:21-28; Matthew 5:38-48; 18:21-35
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(Bible References: NLT – New Living Translation, NASB – New American Standard Bible, KJV – King James Version, HCSB – Holman Christian Standard Bible)
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