Pray for Those Who Hurt You
Adapted from Trusting God Day by Day
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great….
One of the reasons we find forgiving others difficult when we are offended is because we have told ourselves probably thousands of times that forgiving is hard to do. We have convinced ourselves and set our minds to fail at one of God's most important commands, which is to forgive and pray for our enemies and those who hurt and abuse us (see Luke 6:35–36). We meditate too much on what the offensive person has done to us, and we fail to realize what we are doing to ourselves when we take Satan's bait.
Though praying for our enemies and blessing those who curse us may seem extremely difficult or nearly impossible, we can do it if we set our minds to it. Having the proper mindset is vital if we want to obey God. He never tells us to do anything that is not good for us or to do anything we cannot do. He is always available to give us the strength we need to accomplish the task. We don't even need to think about how hard it is; we just need to do it!
God is just! Justice is one of His most admirable character traits. He brings justice as we wait on Him and trust Him to be our Vindicator when we have been hurt or offended. He simply asks us to pray and forgive—and He does the rest. He makes even our pain work out for our good (see Rom. 8:28). He justifies, vindicates, and recompenses us. He pays us back for our pain if we follow His commands to forgive our enemies and even says that we will receive "double for our trouble" (see Isaiah 61:7).
Prayer of the Day: Father God, help me to renew my mind with Your Word, so that I can forgive quickly and freely. Help me to trust You to bring justice and healing in my life, amen.
