What If Prayer Helps My Enemy?

Yesterday we talked about how God wants us to pray for our enemies.  But what if we don’t want to pray for our enemies?  Is praying for our enemies really in our best interest?  Yes, praying for your enemy is in your best interest, even if it helps your enemy.  Here are a few reasons why this is true.

1.  God says to do it.  We won’t end with this reason but we certainly need to start with it.  If God specifically says to do something or not to do something, we need to do it, or not do it.  We can’t possibly understand all the reasons that God has for all of His commands to us; but we can trust that He knows what He is doing.

2.  Seeking good for our enemies makes us “like God”.  God seeks out the best for us, even when we were His enemy.  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Therefore, when we pray for our enemies and seek the best for them, we are like God.

3.  Praying for our enemies could lead to them becoming our friends.  No enemy of yours is “too far gone” and no enemy cannot be helped by our great God.  Some of us have had enemies transform into friends.  That’s a great thing when it happens.  Our God is in the transformation business…and He uses us in the process.

4.  Praying for our enemies reminds us of our dependence on God.  As we pray for our enemies, we are reminded that we too need prayer.  Many of the things that we might feel have been done to us; we’ve likely done to others in the past.  As we pray, God connects with us and brings our own faults to our mind for repentance and restoration.

That’s just a few reasons why we should pray for our enemies.  Prayer won’t put you in an uncomfortable situation and it won’t cost you any money….so pray!