day no. 16,263: pray FOR your enemies, not TO them

Matthew 5:44

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

We are charged to pray TO God FOR our enemies, not TO our enemies as our gods.

The wrath of our enemy is not our chief concern. We are not on mission to make peace with them, but to proclaim God’s peace to them as enemies if they repent.

When we pray for our enemies, we do not pray to them. Too many seek peace with unrighteousness on terms outside our jurisdiction. We are deputized by Christ to offer peace per the terms of His Gospel alone. There is no other peace with God. We are not to crowdsource or synergize in order to find an arrangement that works for everyone. An agreement that works for everyone, will work for no one. We do not pray that our latest offering will finally appease them. We do not offer our compromises in exchange for a ghetto in which we can hold our personal beliefs in the privacy of our hearts. We do not need our enemies permission to hold on to Christ. He commands us to pray for them, not to them. We are not praying to turn away their wrath, but to continue in the peace of God whose wrath has been abated by Christ alone.

When we pray for our enemies, we first must recognize and resolve ourselves to the fact that we will have some. If we follow Christ, those who don't will throw shade at us. Luckily. darkness does not stick to light.

When we pray for our enemies, what do we pray? We do not pray that they would have "a good day." A good day by their standard would be the destruction of what we hold dear. We are not commanded to hope for their cause. No, when we are commanded to pray for them, we are invited to pray for their defeat: either in repentance and surrender or in hamstringing of their efforts.