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Pray for those who hurt you. Luke 5:28
Recently I had an aha moment! It happened while I was going through my prayer list of people for whom I pray regularly. The list, which has grown to over a hundred people, includes family members, relatives, friends and those who serve in the ministry and as missionaries. Since they are people I consider as given to me by God, just as Jesus viewed those the Father had given Him, I have been using His John 17 prayer as a model for similar ways to pray for them. (See Pray Like Jesus for Family and Friends)
As I was praying I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me “Do you know what people in your life are missing from this list?” Pause . . . . “Your enemies.” I thought to myself, “But why would I want to pray for them, they’ve hurt me?” But no sooner had that thought formed as a bubble poised above my head than a pin prick of truth from the Bible popped it. The words of Jesus came darting into the picture “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.” (Luke 5:27-28) Ouch!
Instantly, every ounce of resistance within me drained away. It made perfect sense. Why of course, it is one of Jesus’ basic commands regarding prayer. He not only preached it, He practiced it himself in the face of severe mistreatment and abuse. “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) And so in obedience of faith, I added to my prayer list a new category coded “ME” which is the abbreviation for “my enemies.”
The one salient thing I am learning is that praying for those who have hurt me is praying as much, if not more, for “ME” as for them. Praying prayers of blessing over the “enemy” begins to change and soften our attitude toward them. It forces us to come to terms with our hardened heart and resentments through repeatedly having to pronounce forgiveness and blessing toward them. And so as always with prayer, God’s grace is extended to both the one praying and the one being prayed for. I thank God for that. It has added a dimension to my prayer life that in the past was too readily overlooked.
What have you learned through praying for those who have hurt you?
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Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. Isaiah 65:24
The past week I have finally gotten around to tackling an unfinished project begun nearly two years ago. At that time I planned for and purchased all the materials to put a cobblestone patio in my back yard. Since then the bags of sand and all the pavers have been neatly stacked on pallets underneath our deck, providing a grungy high rise apartment complex for every creepy crawly thing that loves to lurk in dark moist places. Also, surreptitiously slumbering in that pile of potentiality, just waiting to be awakened, is the nemesis of every do-it-yourselfer, the dreaded Mr. Murphy. You know his mantra, “if anything can go wrong it will go wrong.”
The first order of business for me was to relocate two of the in-ground sprinkler heads. In the process I had to cut the existing line and re-route it. That necessitated digging new trenches, laying the black plastic piping and adding a number of connections in the water line. When everything was in place I turned on the water to test for leaks. Not surprisingly, there were several, so I proceeded to tighten all the clamps at the joints. After repeated rounds of testing I ended up with one elbow joint that continued to leak no matter what I did. It just happened to be located right under where the patio would be so I had to totally eliminate that leak at all costs. Finally I even replaced the plastic connector and the clamps, but again no matter what I tried, it continued to leak. Murphy was snarling at me like an agitated bear coming out of hibernation.
It never ceases to amaze me how all evidences of sanctified spirituality seemingly drain away when the littlest thing comes along to unnerve a person. That leaking joint did it for me. After several hours of running back and forth halfway around the house to turn the sprinkler system on and then off to test the connection, I finally gave up. I put my tools away and called it a day.
To be honest I even lost some sleep over it that night, praying and trying to figure out what to do to stop the leaking. The next morning, as I began my daily intercession time, I felt reluctant to even bother praying anymore about that ridiculously insignificant piece of plastic. Why with so many people suffering the world over and so many serious, life and death issues at stake, how could I waste God’s time and any more of my time on that stupid leak. And so I chose to forget about it and pray for others.
After breakfast, on an impulse I asked my wife Susan to take a minute and bow with me in prayer that God would somehow intervene to provide some answer for the leak. Having said “amen” I decided to walk out onto the deck and down the stairs to survey the challenge. It was then that I noticed a van parked in front of the house next door and the lettering on the side spelled the name of a local nursery. My neighbor was out talking to a young man who appeared to be the truck’s driver. To my delight, it turns out the guy was there to open up and test my neighbor’s sprinkler system. What a sight for sore eyes he was.
I approached them, explained my situation and asked if the sprinkler guy would mind stopping over at my house after he was done and taking a look at my problem. I assured the guy I would pay him anything, up to half of my kingdom, if he could fix the leak. He affably agreed. So when he had finished next door he came over. He examined the connection, did some tinkering with the clamps and voilà, no more leak. Yes, it was that simple and an instantaneous answer to a klutz’s prayer. So simple in fact that he would take nothing from me for fixing it.
The moral of the story is: pray first, ask questions later. It should keep Murphy away, but if it doesn’t pray again and he’ll eventually leave.
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“You do not have, because you do not ask God.” James 4:2
We find in the book of James one of the clearest, most succinct teachings on prayer contained anywhere in the Bible. In just six verses James, the brother of Jesus and someone who should know something about prayer, encourages his readers with six different prayers that God loves to answer. The underlying reason for his emphasis on prayer in this epistle is stated in the words “you do not have, because you do not ask God.” It could go without saying, but needs to be said again and again, because we are so prone to forget: we need to pray to get answers to prayer. The answers we desire only come from prayers that are prayed. The more we pray, the more answers we get. It is that simple.
That having been said here are the six prayers that always get answers from God. They are taken from the passage in James 5:13-18.
1. Hardship Prayers – “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray.” (vs. 13a) For those suffering hardships, affliction and troubles of any kind we need to understand that God is “close to the brokenhearted” and promises to “rescue those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) He is a compassionate and merciful God who extends His steadfast love to those in need as faithfully as the rising of the sun each morning. (Lamentations 3:32)
2. Praise Prayers – “Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.” (vs. 13b) Praise to God is one of the most powerful prayers that can be prayed, not only in happy times, but also in times of trial. It is the language of heaven – where praise surrounds the Throne of God day and night. That is why we are told to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, and why the Lord’s prayer begins with hallowing His name. (Psalm 100:4 & Matthew 6:9) God loves to release His power in response to praise just as He did when Jehoshaphat and his army went out to battle led by the worshippers. (2 Chronicles 20) Praise not only ushers us into His presence and releases His power, but it also gives us His perspective as to how we should be praying.
3. Agreement Prayers – “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.” (vs. 14) Jesus promised to be present wherever two or three are gathered in His name and said “if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19-20) Having said this He underscored for us the multiplied power of agreement in prayer. Just imagine if one person can chase a thousand and two ten thousand, what three or more can do? (Deuteronomy 32:30)
4. Faith-Filled Prayers – “Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.” (vs.15a) When prayers are accompanied by faith, things kick into overdrive. Having unshakeable faith in God releases Christ’s authority to the pray-er to command every mountain hindering an answer to ones prayer to be picked up and thrown into the sea. (Mark 11:22-23) “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:24)
5. Repentance Prayers – “And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (vs. 15b-16) One of the great promises in all the Bible is “if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) God will never not answer this prayer. To do so would deny His very nature and the reason He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross.
6. Persistent Prayers – “Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.” (vs. 17-18) James uses a quintessential illustration of the power of persistent prayer taken from the life of Elijah. (1 Kings 18) Even the great prophet had to pray multiple times, seven to be exact, before rain came. But he persisted and God answered! Jesus said it best when He exhorted His disciples that “they should always pray and never give up!” (Luke 18:1)
If you have been a prayer drought, why not ask God to lead you in praying one or more of these prayers? Be assured, these are six prayers God loves to answer, but remember, you must first pray them before He will answer!
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“Never stop praying.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NLT)
Never underestimate the difference a prayer can make. “Never stop praying” is one of the shortest verses in the Bible and yet it conveys a remarkable and unmistakable truth. Prayer makes a difference! Even when it may seem like a brief formality or something one does simply out of habit, prayer is nonetheless important and does make a difference. I learned this in an unforgettably humorous way back when I was a youth pastor.
One practice of prayer since my early days as a believer in Christ has been to pause before embarking on any long journey and pray to God for His traveling mercies. Typically it is a spontaneous type of prayer asking for His presence and protection as I and those with me travel to our destination. It is as simple as sitting in our vehicle just before starting out and bowing for a few moments in prayer. And as a leader I have always been particularly cognizant of the necessity of doing this whenever I have had a van or bus load of people heading out on an outing together.
One winter I chartered a school bus to take the youth from our church located in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) up into the woods of Northern Wisconsin for a weekend retreat. The retreat center was a rustic one that was situated just off an isolated forest road in the middle of nowhere. The scenery was spectacular. The bows of the tall pine trees were laden with snow and the white expanse of the nearby frozen lake provided a crystal clear contrast to the cloudless azure sky. All the students and counselors had a wonderful time participating in outdoor snow activities and then in the evening gathered around the fireplace for times together of worship and Bible teaching. It was the perfect retreat every youth pastor dreams of, no threats to send someone home or having to deal with some pranksters disrupting our sleep in the night.
Sunday afternoon, after the typical cajoling and herding of the flock, we finally had everyone on the bus and were ready to go. It had been a hectic time cleaning and packing up and we were an hour or so behind my schedule of departure with a four hour drive yet ahead of us. As I was standing at the head of the aisle, having completed the head count, I was anxious to get rolling. The bus driver had closed the doors and was paused waiting for my final instructions before hitting the road. I thought to myself “Now it’s time to pray.” But I can remember very clearly reasoning within myself “Oh it is really not all that important, it’s just a formality anyway, we need to get on our way.” And with that conversation in my head completed, I dropped the idea of prayer and gave the bus driver the nod to go.
The driver drove down the driveway and as he took a right onto the road, for some reason his turn was too wide, causing our bus to plow into the huge show banks lining the far side of the road. There we were, not even one block into our trip home, parked helplessly and precipitously at a nearly 45 degree angle straddling the shoulder and the ditch. We had everyone get out of the bus as soon as we could, fearing it would tip over. As all of us were standing on that desolate road we began to puzzle what to do. Being miles from the nearest town it could take hours before a tow truck would be able to find its way to us.
It was then that the deep conviction of the Holy Spirit came upon me as I realized that we were in the ditch because I had decided prayer really wasn’t all that important. Having no other recourse I shared with the entire group what I had done and asked their forgiveness. Then all of us prayed acknowledging to God that prayer does matter and asking Him to help us. No sooner had we finished saying “Amen” then we all had to clear the road because a vehicle was approaching. It pulled to a stop beside us and to our surprise it was a big Budweiser truck. The driver was a very congenial man and as he marveled at our predicament, he offered, “Why don’t I try to pull you out?” He proceeded to drag out a huge chain and literally within minutes he had us towed back up onto the road. With profuse thanksgivings on our part, he was soon on his way and so were we.
Imagine, in a delay of a mere fifteen minutes, God had engineered an invaluable and indelible lesson about prayer that would impact me and many others for a lifetime: Never underestimate the power of your prayer! And here is God’s sense of humor, in the midst of our dilemma it is as if He was saying to us . . .“This Bud’s for you!”
Do you have any stories of how God taught you the great value of prayer?
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