Dear Church,
Pray for your enemies.
A pastor is a shepherd, of a flock of people. What a
privilege this is! I thank God, often, for calling Linda and me to be pastors.
But sometimes, one of the sheep bites. As a pastor, I have
taken my share of abuse. I’ve been doing this since 1971, and I’ve got bite
marks all over by soul. Here’s one story of a man who chomped on me.
I was in my fourth year at a church in the Chicago area. I
was teaching a series, on Sunday evenings, on the book of Revelation. At one
point we were looking at the Second Coming of Christ. When will this happen?
I was using Jack Hayford’s Spirit-Filled Life Bible.
Jack did the footnotes. In a footnote relevant to the question, Jack presented
nine possible theological views of when the second Coming might happen. I
showed these to the class. I remember telling them that we need to be humble
about this subject, because good Christians had differing views.
Little did I know that, as I talked about the nine
possibilities, a man in the class was getting angrier and angrier. He believed
there was only one view of the Second Coming, and it was his.
I have not forgotten what happened as the class ended. He
was a big man, over six feet tall. He was much older than I. He approached me,
bent down to my eye level. The veins in his neck were bulging. His face was
red. He yelled. I was, he said, wrong, a heretic, and a false teacher. At a few
points I thought he was going to hit me.
I was shaken.
As I drove home with Linda, I found myself hating him. I
wanted to get even with him. Vengeance was mine, sayeth myself.
I could not pray without hurting him, somehow, at least in
my mind.
He was an enemy that threatened me. He was a persecutor, of
me. I could not, I chose not to, pray for him. And, making things harder, I was
a lover of Jesus. I knew about what Jesus
said in Luke 6:28 - Bless those who curse you, pray for those who
mistreat you. So God, how can I do this thing that you command me to
do?
“Pray for your enemies,” my
Lord Jesus says. Well, that’s easy for him to say, because he is Jesus. Not
really, right? Jesus did it in the moment when hanging on that cross, as hatred
assaulted him. In his darkest time, he prayed, “Forgive these people, for they
don’t know what they are doing.”
How can I do Mark 11:25?
And when you stand praying,
if you
hold anything against anyone, forgive them,
so that your Father in heaven may forgive you
your sins.”
Or Mark 5:44?
But I tell you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
And what does Psalm 23 mean when it says,
"You prepare a table before me in the
presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows."
Dear Beloved of God, there is a praying life that is deeper and
wider and higher and longer, which includes praying for your enemies. I invite
you to pray this with me: "God, let your love so shape and fill my heart
that it overflows even to my enemies."
Pray for release. Pray for the freedom to love others as Christ loves them.
Love…,
PJ
ASSIGNMENT
Pray for a love that, like the love of God, is higher, wider, deeper, and longer
than any earthly love you have experienced.
From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.
