What Should I Pray Against My Enemies
In the biblical examples of these kinds of prayers, we do see somewhat of a pattern. There are aspects of these prayers that we can identify which we can use as well.
When biblical authors pray imprecatory prayers, they are praying that God would be glorified by stopping people from actively working against him and his people. They are asking that Gods purposes will prevail.
This is a humble approach to prayer and is how Jesus taught us to pray as well. When he gave what is sometimes called the model prayer, he told us to Your kingdom come, Your will be done . This emphasis is usually modeled even in the prayers against enemies.
The Lord is wiser than you. And vengeance, mercy, and salvation truly do belong to him.
You can also pray for justice to be done. Justice is specifically that people get what they deserve. People truly do deserve the wrath of God. They do deserve punishment for their sin.
Just understand when you pray for this that you also deserve wrath and punishment. It is only by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that you have been forgiven of your wrongdoing. There is no one righteous, including both me, you, and our enemies .
Dealing With The Brother Who Is Unaware Of His Offense Against You
‘And forgive us our sins,For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.And lead us not into temptation.'”- Luke 11:4
This is the trickiest situation because sometimes we are hurt by people who never intended to offend us or who are completely unaware that they have, by their words or deeds, made us feel bad. We usually have several options with them.
- Feel bad and secretly hate them. We give them the partial silent treatment hoping that they’ll figure out something is wrong. Rarely works and causes more bad feelings on both sides.
- Go to them and tell them about what has happened and how you feel. It’s like cornering someone where they have no choice but to either insult you some more or apologize. Very little satisfaction.
- Simply do what Jesus says, “.. forgive everyone who is indebted to us”.
To freely forgive someone who has offended us but is unaware is truly not letting the right hand Know what the left is doing and is so much more satisfying than demanding an apology when dealing with the repeat offender, the unrepentant offender, the brother who is unaware of his offense…
Why Should I Love My Enemies
Loving your enemies can also mean making an effort to interact and make peace with them. In the end, if you are able to establish some common ground and patch things up, youll have succeeded in making another friend. And who doesnt need friends? This can also help you in working with people in the long run.
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The Enemys Tactic Of Slander And Gossip
Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written: It is reported among the nationsand Geshem says it is truethat you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: There is a king in Judah! Now this report will get back to the king so come, let us confer together. I sent him this reply: Nothing like what you are saying is happening you are just making it up out of your head. They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed. But I prayed, Now strengthen my hands.Nehemiah 6:5-9
We see that the enemy also attacked Nehemiah through slander. Initially, he sent four personal messages to Nehemiah, but on the last one, he sent an open letter. Typically, when sending a letter to a government official, it would be a closed letter so that no one else could see the contents. However, Sanballat sought to pressure Nehemiah to respond to this meeting by slandering his name. Therefore, this open letter would not only have been read before Nehemiah but, probably, all along the way till it reached Nehemiah.
Interpretation Question: In what ways do we see Satans slander throughout Scripture?
1. Satan slandered Job before God.
How Does The Bible Say To Love Your Enemies
He taught extensively on the subject starting with Luke 6:27-28 and he was crystal clear: But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. He is telling us to love our enemies and treat them with kindness, blessings, and prayer.
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Does God Love Everyone
Does God truly love all persons? Most Christians think the obvious answer to this question is, Yes, of course he does! Indeed, many Christians would agree that the very heart of the gospel is that God so loved the whole world that he gave his Son to make salvation available for every single person.
Pray For Those Who Persecute You
The second part of loving your enemies is praying for those who persecute you. Now, you might be saying: its bad enough Jesus says I have to love them…now I have to pray for them, too? Are you absolutely certain your Greek translation is right? Again, the answer is yes. Heres why. There is a higher purpose.
What Jesus displayed on the cross.
What Stephen displayed when he was being stoned.
They were more concerned about the eternal than the temporary. If you will remember that everyone who persecutes you has an eternal destination waiting for them, you will pray for them. By the way, dont pray for God to get them pray for grace to love them, forgive them, and show kindness to them. You never know, if they dont know Jesus, your kindness may win them over. It could also mean they will never reciprocate or respond, but you cant control that. But dont worryGod will eventually deal with them. Just do your part:
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18
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Bible Verses About Enemies: 21 Educational Scriptures
The Bible is Gods word to us. I think that far to often, we take it for granted and dont revere and treasure the word of God as we should. One of the reasons that it is important that we read and know Gods word is because the Bible often tells us things that we would never grasp on our own. Some things just dont seem to make sense to our finite minds. The words that we find in the Bible about enemies is one of those areas. Our culture and society tells us to live for ourselves and to grab all of the gusto for ourselves. Loving and forgiving our enemies is counter to our own sense of reasoning. The following verses all talk about our interaction with our enemies or adversaries. Some of the words listed below come from Jesus while on this earth. Reflect on what God has to say about our enemies.
Featured Bible Verse Luke 6:27 But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
I hope you come to realize that we do not really have enemies or a list of enemies but rather we should strive to love one another because of what Christ has done for us.
Dealing With The Unrepentant Offender
15″If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. 19″Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”- Matthew 18:15-20
Sometimes there is a person who offends you at the church and is unrepentant. The greatest single cause of division, strife and heartache among church members is that they do not follow this teaching when it comes to dealing with others who have knowingly or unknowingly offended them, or sinned against the church What people usually do is tell or complain to someone else . Or they repress their feelings of anger and let it simmer in silent resentment towards that person or persons.
This is not an option, Jesus says that if your brother sins but you can actually substantiate that an offense has occurred you must:
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Proverb For The Day 2: 17
Do not gloat when your enemy falls when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him.
In the Bible, my enemy is someone who does not like me, someone who wants to do me harm, never someone I dont like or to whom I want to do harm. Jesus doesnt allow us to be that way. In fact, He said we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us .
So my enemy who falls in this verse is not someone I dont like, but someone who doesnt like me and I am not supposed to be happy when they fall. There are many reasons why I shouldnt, but this verse only mentions one. If I rejoice in his calamity, the LORD will know and He reserves the right to stop this process in my enemys life.
While this person is not right or else they would not have an enemy attitude toward me the LORD speaks to me about my attitude in this situation! If my attitude is not appropriate He says He will turn His wrath away from my enemy.
It is not that my enemy is going to get away with anything, its just that He is going to deal with them later in some other fashion, because my attitude got in the way during this process.
The Enemys Tactic Of Attacking Immediately After Victory
So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.Nehemiah 6:15-19
It says in verse 15 that the wall was completed in fifty-two days and all the surrounding nations were afraid because they realized God had helped. You might expect an end to the memoirs of Nehemiah or a They lived happily ever after because the wall was completed, but that doesnt happen. The enemy attacked again immediately.
The next attack came through the nobles of Judah, who would have been very influential, as Judah was the royal line. They were bound to Tobiah through marriage and were sharing everything Nehemiah said with him. At the same time, they continually spoke good words about Tobiah. However, these good words were ingenuous, as Tobiah kept sending intimidating letters to Nehemiah .
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How To Overcome The Enemy
Christians will confront many enemies as a result of their trust in Jesus Christ: In reality, everyone who wishes to live a good life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. . However, God does not leave us defenseless we have a host of resources to defend ourselves against Satan and his horde of demons. Jesus came to give us relief from our enemies and from sin.
We can overcome Satan by giving God our concerns. 1 Peter 5:6-7 says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under Gods mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Instead of fiercely tossing your affliction back at God, humility tenderly and confidently returns every anxiety to him. If we are relying on God, then we are not relying on the world, and Satan has less ability to influence our lives.
We need to be strong in the Lord to gain strength over the great oppressor . Furthermore, we need to remember that God loves us and will never forsake us , and He has a plan to defeat Satan, which started on the cross . Gods plan continues to work and will until He delivers the devil and his minions to their eternal damnation. First, though, we must choose to follow God .
10. Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes.
11. Ephesians 6:13 Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand.
How To Love Your Enemies
Its sad that I have to even include politics in an article about loving your enemies but I must speak the truth. As Christians, we have really made a mess of our witness and testimony when you consider the political arena.
Not because you have a political viewpoint, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The problem is we dont allow someone else to have a different viewpoint. A different political view has been made the equivalent of a declaration of war.
Its like we have pledged allegiance to a donkey or an elephant and have somehow left the cross behind. By the way, if youre not from America, those are the symbols of the two biggest political parties in our country.
If you really want to show the love of Christ, stop letting political differences divide you. Recognize that we as Christians are united under the cross and when it is all said and done there will only be one King of Kings and one Lord of Lords. And I promise you, he will not be sitting in any political office.
I hope that wasnt too soapboxy but if it was, I pray you hear my heart and we dont become enemies. Because if we do, you still have to love me anyway. As I will you. With that said, lets look at three real-world ways to love your enemies.
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Flip The Script And Respond With Kindness
Honestly, there are some people who just wont be very nice or kind to you. When you come in contact with these people and they show you hate, you respond with love and kindness. A good rule of thumb is to just follow what the Bible says:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. Romans 12:17
On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:20-21
Let me give you a few real-world examples. Try some of these things and it may catch people off-guard and could leave them wondering about the source of your kindness.
To the annoying co-worker when youre going out to buy lunch, ask them if they would like anything, and buy it for them, your treat.
Heres another thought, when their birthday comes around, give them a birthday card. Dont send an emailactually go to the store and buy one.
The point here is that regardless of who that enemy is…you must respond differently than they expect and, more importantly, than what you really want. This is what it means to flip the script. I know you really want to tell them the truth but thats not always how it works.
Ultimately, remember we represent Christ. And if you really give it to em, that can hurt your witness. Sometimes it takes a long time to recover your witness after thatand some never do.
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