On Praying for Our Enemies

Meditate on what you most want for your life. Peace, contentment, love, forgiveness, happy relationships, whatever you most strongly desire.

Now, consider those who have personally wronged you. Regardless of your relationship with them; even if you will never meet them again. Consider those “enemies” that you have in the world; people at work, friends, whomever it may be.

Now pray for each of them those things that you most want for your life. Pray that they will find that peace, that love, that contentment, that forgiveness that you most desire.

Finally, having prayed for those things for them, let go of those desires for yourself. To give sacrificially means to surrender your own right to those things which you would give away. If I give you 100$, I no longer have the right to claim that 100$ as my own. If I give you any gift, I can no longer claim it as mine.

Paul said in his letter to the Romans “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethern according to the flesh…” (Romans 9:3). He chose to pray that he could surrender the grace that had been given to him for the sake of others. As he did, so too must we. We honor Christ when we honor His creation, and we love Christ when we cherish His creation.

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