Have you ever considered the wisdom of Jesus’ instruction to pray for those who have hurt you and continue to make life difficult for you? By this Jesus didn’t mean that we pray that God would judge them or protect us, but rather that God would bless the very individuals who have hurt us. Recently, my wife went through a frightening situation. Her response was to pray that God would bless the perpetrators. Her example helped me to understand the purpose of Jesus’ words to forgive.
Scripture teaches us that God has no desire to condemn anyone, he desires all individuals to come to a point of repentance in their life. Jesus understood and teaches us that individuals turn to God due to God’s kindness toward them. How is God’s kindness extended and demonstrated to someone who lives life out of anger and hurt? One way is for someone who has been hurt by that individual to show kindness to them by asking that God would bless them and show kindness to them. This is similar to Jesus’ prayer when he asked that God would forgive the soldiers who were crucifying him. When Jesus died, these battle hardened soldiers saw that Jesus truly was a man from God. When seen in this light, Jesus’ words to pray for those who persecute us make perfect sense and align with God’s heart toward mankind. In this way, Jesus also invites us to participate in seeing people healed from their own hurts and reconciled with God himself.
David Freitag 