Pray for your enemies…but how?

18.11.09 / Uncategorized / Author: admin / Comments
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Perhaps you’ve seen a bumper sticker or a read a post which has the statement “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8″ on it. It’s become a popular rallying cry for Christians who do not like President Obama’s policies.

Naturally, President Obama and all of the world’s leaders need our prayers; they must make difficult decisions which affect many lives. It is equally clear that Christians are called to pray for those with whom we disagree, and in fact Jesus specifically commands us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. (Matthew 5:44)

However, I don’t think this is the kind of prayer Jesus had in mind. Psalm 109:8 reads, “May his days be few; may another seize his position.” The following verse is even more ominous: “May his children be orphans and his wife a widow.” That certainly doesn’t sound very loving, does it?

Remember the song with the refrain, “and they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love?” Sadly, it seems to me that Christians are at least as hate-filled as anyone else out there, and when we disagree on social or political issues we do things like shout each other down at town halls or church meetings, demonize those who don’t see things exactly like we do, withhold or threaten to withhold our offerings if we don’t get our way, and start a new church so we don’t have to associate with anyone who doesn’t share our views. Do we really believe that we are being faithful Christians and glorifying God by acting that way?

What if we genuinely prayed for those with whom we disagree instead? I don’t mean prayers that God will zap them, remove them from power, or make them see the error of their ways and acknowledge that we are right; I mean sincerely asking God to bless and guide them. What if we talked WITH them instead of AT them or ABOUT them, with the goal of understanding why they feel the way they do? What if we made it clear that we do not agree with their position, but still recognized that they, too, are trying to be faithful and believe that God is calling them to pursue a particular course of action that we find offensive?

Who knows what could happen? Maybe if Christians could learn to live together in peace, we could help the rest of the world do the same.