You hurt me. You broke me. You made me feel like nothing. You made me want to end my life. You were the one I trusted, but that is gone.
I've been there, have you? A close friend you shared everything with suddenly ends your friendship. A family member betrays you. Your husband or wife leaves. Your kid turns away. Or whatever the situation, you are hurt and struggling to understand why. We live in a word of big emotions and it's easy to experience this.
In our 21 Days of Prayer book today, my Pastor speaks about this, and it hit close to home. We can’t wait until we aren’t hurt anymore to pray for them. We live in a world of Blocking people from our social medias, canceling them for it, and trying to move on. We do all we can to let it go or pretend they don't exist and therefore we are fine. Its easy to fall into the enemies traps and do these things or hurt them back. That’s not what Matthew says. So how do we handle it?
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” – Matthew 5:44 (ESV)
We pray for our enemies just like we pray for everything else. We don’t ask for curses on them but blessings. We stand before God and pray for them. It’s hard at the start. Trust me. To utter the words, “I ask for You to bless them.” Or “You know I’m hurting, God, but I pray they aren’t and they have an amazing life.” It’s hard.
I’ve experienced this a few times in my life. My best friends leaving and I am left to figure things out. I resented them. I couldn’t say their name without tears. I remember seeing them in public and panicking. My family has done it. Friends. People who I loved and trusted. So I understand it.
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” – Matthew 6:14-15 (ESV)
But what if God only blessed those who never hurt Him? Would you be blessed? The hard reality is, if God only gave His heart and blessing to those who never sinned and never hurt Him or went against what He said, no one would be blessed except Jesus. But that’s not the God I serve. I serve a God that, even when I’ve broken every command He gave me or hurt His heart deeply, He forgives me with open arms.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9 (ESV)
Now, I’m not saying we need to be like God in the sense of opening our arms to those who hurt us and letting them back in. Some of those people are not supposed to be in our lives. But we still must pray for them. Whenever they come to our minds, we need to pray for them to be blessed and not turn away from that opportunity to bless them.
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” – Romans 12:14 (ESV)
So what do you say? Who do you need to pray for, and how can you release that to the Lord today so you can walk in freedom tomorrow?
