Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam dignissim mi quis tortor faucibus suscipit at vel nisi. Phasellus accumsan accumsan lectus ut ullamcorper. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Praesent luctus dui et justo ultrices, id euismod leo molestie. Phasellus ullamcorper urna nec nisi feugiat auctor. Vivamus varius erat sit amet mattis porttitor. In scelerisque vestibulum felis, vel rutrum tellus vehicula et. Aenean eu eros ante. Nulla et ipsum tincidunt, aliquet mauris sed, posuere enim. Sed vel iaculis arcu. Suspendisse vestibulum dolor nec lacus condimentum sollicitudin. Maecenas ut accumsan lorem. Duis eros diam, ultrices in lobortis eget, mollis bibendum risus.
Duis convallis commodo aliquet. Nunc dolor libero, consequat nec tincidunt sit amet, dictum auctor velit. Sed varius nulla sed purus euismod semper. Quisque suscipit mattis elementum. Pellentesque ut lacus a quam accumsan aliquam. Nulla facilisi. Proin rutrum vulputate quam non lobortis. Aenean maximus tortor quam, id interdum nulla pulvinar id. Donec diam dui, malesuada cursus semper vitae, vehicula non nulla. Duis lacus tortor, sagittis id enim et, hendrerit hendrerit odio. Quisque blandit mauris sed efficitur mattis. Nulla rutrum a lorem sit amet aliquam. Nullam ligula dui, luctus in rhoncus et, viverra a arcu. Pellentesque quis quam lobortis, porttitor purus vitae, pretium felis.
Praying for your enemies
Jesus said..“But I tell you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27)
When I originally planned this series I intended that the next article after “Pray for one another” should be “Pray for your enemies.” It is no co-incidence that it has taken me so long to get around to writing it. Obedience to Jesus’ command that we pray for our enemies and do good to those who hate us is surely one of the most difficult tests of our discipleship.
Who is my enemy? As a child I naively thought that all Christians were ‘nice’ people, and nice people should not have any enemies. I’ve since discovered that sadly neither of these are true. While it may be true that inoffensive people don’t make many enemies, we are not called to be inoffensive. We are called to follow Christ. If Jesus, the best person who ever lived, had many enemies, we should also expect to have enemies. Those who hate Christ will hate us too.
What’s more, it’s not just the rampant atheist and other fanatics who may wish us ill. Our enemies may be those closest to us.The psalmist speaks of “friends” who soothe us with insincere words before going out and slandering us. (Psalm 41:6-9). Jesus said our worst enemies would come from within our own household (Matt 10:36). He himself was betrayed by a disciple and sent to his death by the leaders of his own people.
We should be careful, however, not to label as ‘enemies’ those who simply irritate us, annoy us or let us down. In The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote “Our enemies are those who harbor hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility.” Certainly we should pray for the well being of those we find difficult to love, but our lack of love and patience towards them is our problem, not theirs. Jesus bore no hostility towards the disciples who deserted him in his trials.
Why should we pray for our enemies? Quoting Proverbs 25, Paul wrote that by praying for our enemies we would “heap burning coals on their heads.” This is sometimes taken to mean that our purpose in praying should be to make our enemies uncomfortable and shame them into changing their behaviour. (The Good News Bible even translates this phrase as “you will make him burn with shame.”) Yet there seems to be a subtle sense of revenge-seeking about this that contradicts Paul’s previous statement that revenge belongs to God. And in practice, how often is an enemy shamed by a Christian’s prayers? It happens, but by no means consistently.
Perhaps Paul’s next sentence “Do not let evil defeat you, instead conquer evil with good” suggests that he has in mind the purifying coals of the temple or the transforming coals of the smelter. In a chapter that deals with our own inward transformation, praying for our enemy’s transformation would certainly be evidence of our progress towards this goal.
We face two obstacles in praying for our enemies. The first is that we simply don’t want to do it. It goes against our human nature, which prefers to seek revenge whenever it’s safe to do so. We need the sort of inward transformation that Paul speaks about.
The second obstacle is that, if we do pray for our enemies, we can become smug about it. Like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, we can imagine that we’re somehow gaining favour with God when we pray. “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like this enemy of mine - look, I even pray for her.” Again, an inward transformation is required.
The source of this transformation, this change of heart, is our recognition that we too were once enemies of God, yet he has not dealt with us as we deserve. Jesus calls us to treat our enemies as we ourselves have been treated by God, with love, compassion and forgiveness. In this way we will become sons and daughters of God. Such a transformation is not merely the result of reflection, but a work of the Holy Spirit upon our spirit.
Praying for others
Jesus compared praying for the needs of others to a man coming to a friend's house at midnight. After waking the whole household with his knocking, he pleads for the loan of three loaves of bread to feed the visitor who has just arrived at his house. (Luke 11:5-8) If such audacity and persistence gets results on earth, says Jesus, you can be assured that it will be just as effective in heaven.
Our 'visitor' need not be aware of our midnight door-knocking. For instance, we might pray silently for the physical and spiritual needs of the people around us as we travel to work, as we meet people during our day, as we watch the news on television or read the newspaper. Such prayers can strengthen our faith when we see answers to our private prayers that can only come from God himself since no-one else knows about them. Even if we never get to know, this side of heaven, how our prayers were answered, bringing others' needs to God in prayer is a wonderful way of ministering to people. (Obviously, if we have the means to provide for their needs out of what God has already provided to us, we should do that too.)
Sometimes, though, we might let our 'visitor' know that we're off to get some bread for them. In other words, we will offer to pray for them. Saying "I'll pray for you" can sometimes be a cop-out from actually doing what's needed, whether that's providing a meal, spending time listening or whatever. But knowing that someone is praying for them is often a great encouragement to the person who is struggling. Even some non-believers appreciate such an offer, though we need to be aware that there are others who will be offended. (We can still pray privately for such people, of course.)
When should we invite our hungry 'visitor' to come with us to our generous friend's house to get bread? That is, when should we offer to pray with someone? In my experience, people are much more eager to have someone pray with them than we are to offer. If the other person is a Christian, asking "Would you like me to pray with you?" is unlikely to cause offense, even if the answer is "No, thanks." We need to be sensitive to the situation - not everyone wants their most intimate problems aired aloud in prayer in public. Some Christians are happy to be prayed for, but are not comfortable about praying out loud themselves. It's probably better not to offer to pray with a non-believer until we know them reasonably well, unless we're prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so.
The advantage of praying aloud with someone is that they hear what we're praying, and can then see how our prayer is answered. The words we use in prayer can be an encouragement, if they remind the person we're praying for of the goodness and faithfulness of God. The disadvantage is that we can slip into the temptation to move from genuine prayer to words as therapy or a form of intimacy. For this reason, it is better in some situations to invite another person to join you in praying for the person in need.
The more we're aware of our own dependence on God, the better we will be at praying for others. The man in Jesus story knew he had nothing to offer his visitor, but he knew he could depend on his friend to provide it. Jesus tells us to keep on knocking on God's door because it will be opened.
Our 'visitor' need not be aware of our midnight door-knocking. For instance, we might pray silently for the physical and spiritual needs of the people around us as we travel to work, as we meet people during our day, as we watch the news on television or read the newspaper. Such prayers can strengthen our faith when we see answers to our private prayers that can only come from God himself since no-one else knows about them. Even if we never get to know, this side of heaven, how our prayers were answered, bringing others' needs to God in prayer is a wonderful way of ministering to people. (Obviously, if we have the means to provide for their needs out of what God has already provided to us, we should do that too.)
Sometimes, though, we might let our 'visitor' know that we're off to get some bread for them. In other words, we will offer to pray for them. Saying "I'll pray for you" can sometimes be a cop-out from actually doing what's needed, whether that's providing a meal, spending time listening or whatever. But knowing that someone is praying for them is often a great encouragement to the person who is struggling. Even some non-believers appreciate such an offer, though we need to be aware that there are others who will be offended. (We can still pray privately for such people, of course.)
When should we invite our hungry 'visitor' to come with us to our generous friend's house to get bread? That is, when should we offer to pray with someone? In my experience, people are much more eager to have someone pray with them than we are to offer. If the other person is a Christian, asking "Would you like me to pray with you?" is unlikely to cause offense, even if the answer is "No, thanks." We need to be sensitive to the situation - not everyone wants their most intimate problems aired aloud in prayer in public. Some Christians are happy to be prayed for, but are not comfortable about praying out loud themselves. It's probably better not to offer to pray with a non-believer until we know them reasonably well, unless we're prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so.
The advantage of praying aloud with someone is that they hear what we're praying, and can then see how our prayer is answered. The words we use in prayer can be an encouragement, if they remind the person we're praying for of the goodness and faithfulness of God. The disadvantage is that we can slip into the temptation to move from genuine prayer to words as therapy or a form of intimacy. For this reason, it is better in some situations to invite another person to join you in praying for the person in need.
The more we're aware of our own dependence on God, the better we will be at praying for others. The man in Jesus story knew he had nothing to offer his visitor, but he knew he could depend on his friend to provide it. Jesus tells us to keep on knocking on God's door because it will be opened.
Praying for God's glory or praying for our needs?
In my first post on this site I said that one of the essential elements of prayer was a sense of our own or others' need, the 'necessity' of prayer. Yet recently I've been writing about praying in Jesus name in order to do God's will and bring him glory. Aren't these contradictory? Aren't we being selfish or at least human-centred rather than God-centred if we pray for the things we need in our own lives? If we want to glorify God and pray according to his will, shouldn't we focus our prayers on things like evangelism and mission, rather than bothering God with our anxiety over an exam, or the health of our Auntie June?
This sense that our prayers aren't acceptable unless we're constantly praying about great, "spiritual" issues can be crippling to our prayer life. It leads to all sorts of less-than-Christian attitudes to prayer. We might bring our own apparently petty needs to God and then try to parcel them up with some prayers for outreach and missions, in an effort to make them seem more acceptable. In effect we try to strike a bargain with God - if you give me what I want, I'll pray for what you want.
Or we might ignore our own needs altogether and pray only for the big issues. But that leads to self-sufficiency and pride. "Look at all those silly souls praying for their own trivial needs, while I co-operate with God in changing the world."
The problem arises from an inadequate understanding of God's rule and God's kingdom. The kingdom of God is not about ever-so-holy people doing ever-so-spiritual activities. It's about the whole of life being brought under the lordship of Christ. It's about honoring and serving God in everything we do, with our bodies, minds, words, relationships and goods. And it's about longing to see all people, all of creation doing the same.
So in fact we honour God and bring him glory when we acknowledge our needs to him. We extend his kingdom when we pray for the means to overcome sickness, pain and suffering in those around us. We serve him better when we seek his healing for our own weaknesses and failings. We demonstrate his rule in our lives when we bring our relationships to him in prayer.
If we can't acknowledge our trust in God's goodness and reliance on his power to provide for our own relatively simple needs, where will we get the faith to ask for big, world-changing things? And there's no doubt that we are told to pray for governments and leaders, for the sending out of missionaries and evangelists, for the salvation of the lost, for the spiritual growth of other Christians, for the perseverence of those facing persecution for their faith. But it's also God's will that we should pray for our daily bread.
This sense that our prayers aren't acceptable unless we're constantly praying about great, "spiritual" issues can be crippling to our prayer life. It leads to all sorts of less-than-Christian attitudes to prayer. We might bring our own apparently petty needs to God and then try to parcel them up with some prayers for outreach and missions, in an effort to make them seem more acceptable. In effect we try to strike a bargain with God - if you give me what I want, I'll pray for what you want.
Or we might ignore our own needs altogether and pray only for the big issues. But that leads to self-sufficiency and pride. "Look at all those silly souls praying for their own trivial needs, while I co-operate with God in changing the world."
The problem arises from an inadequate understanding of God's rule and God's kingdom. The kingdom of God is not about ever-so-holy people doing ever-so-spiritual activities. It's about the whole of life being brought under the lordship of Christ. It's about honoring and serving God in everything we do, with our bodies, minds, words, relationships and goods. And it's about longing to see all people, all of creation doing the same.
So in fact we honour God and bring him glory when we acknowledge our needs to him. We extend his kingdom when we pray for the means to overcome sickness, pain and suffering in those around us. We serve him better when we seek his healing for our own weaknesses and failings. We demonstrate his rule in our lives when we bring our relationships to him in prayer.
If we can't acknowledge our trust in God's goodness and reliance on his power to provide for our own relatively simple needs, where will we get the faith to ask for big, world-changing things? And there's no doubt that we are told to pray for governments and leaders, for the sending out of missionaries and evangelists, for the salvation of the lost, for the spiritual growth of other Christians, for the perseverence of those facing persecution for their faith. But it's also God's will that we should pray for our daily bread.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)