How to Pray for Your Enemy

How to Pray for Your Enemy

A few years ago, an elderly lady contacted me and told me a story about how a man had cheated her out of a large sum of money. After completing the story in great detail, she asked me what I thought she should do.

I explained to this Christian lady that according to the Word, she was commanded to pray for her enemies. (Matt. 5:43-48.) She immediately bowed her head and began to pray and her prayer went something like this. "Lord, You know that this man hurt me and he stole from me. So in the name of Jesus, I curse his finances and all that he possesses. May his well run dry and I send forth destruction," and she would have gone on and on if I hadn't interrupted her.

I immediately looked up, grabbed the woman by the hand and sternly said, "Stop!" She replied, "Why? I was only doing what the Bible said. I was praying for my enemy." It took a few minutes in the Word to explain to this dear saint that she wasn't praying for her enemy, she was attempting to place curses upon him and that's not what Jesus said to do.

In Luke 6:28 Jesus said, "Bless those who curse you and pray for those who spitefully use you." He did not say to curse and He did not to say to pray against. He said to bless and pray for. Then He goes on to say in verses 32 and 33 that if you only love those who love you, that you are no different than sinners in the world, because even sinners love those who love them.

In verse 36 He says, "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful." In verse 37, He goes on to say, "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

There will be a time of judging and there will be a time of punishment. There will be a payday someday. But we are neither the judge nor the executioner. While it is true we should never allow ourselves to be abused, that does not give us the right to execute judgment and attempt to curse and condemn our enemies. That is exactly the opposite of what our Lord and Savior told us to do.

When someone comes against you, remember this. We are to be imitators of our Lord and John 3:17 says that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world. As believers, we are to be the ones who bless and not the ones who curse. But God is a God of justice and He is our Defender.