Intercessory Prayer: Blessing Those Who Hurt Us.

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Rain on the Righteous and the Unrighteous:

In the vision I shared <HERE>, there was something that the Lord said that’s stuck with me ever since: all will get wet in this storm. Not just the righteous. Everyone. The Lord made a point of it — this rain falls on both.

That sent me to Matthew 5:45, where Jesus says:

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

What Is Jesus Actually Asking Us?

We see a lot of evil going on around us right now. A lot of evil people, doing evil things — that’s just true. But the Lord doesn’t want us to hate them. He hates what they’re doing. That’s different from hating them. He wants us to love our enemies — and I think that means we’re being called to pray for them.

I find that’s actually not so easy to do. To me it’s one of the harder things Jesus says in the whole Sermon on the Mount, and He doesn’t leave much room for negotiation:

“If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even the pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

In other words — loving people who love you back isn’t the standard. Anyone can do that. The standard is loving the ones who don’t.

So How Do You Actually Do This?

Intercession for people who oppose you isn’t a natural human instinct. It has to be practiced. Hear are a few ways we can start:

• Name them specifically before God, rather than praying in generalities about “those who do evil.” Bring the actual person, the actual situation, into the room with you.
• Ask God to bless what’s good in them before you ask Him to change what’s wrong. It’s hard to pray hate into someone’s life when you’ve just asked God to bless them!
• Pray for their eyes to open, not for them to lose. The goal isn’t their defeat — it’s their repentance.

The Urgency

I sense something urgent here. We’re going to see things even more clearly in the days ahead, I believe — and for some people, there’s a closing window. Repentance is still available, but I don’t think it stays available forever. That’s part of why the praying matters so much right now. It’s not just a spiritual discipline. It’s time-sensitive.

And whether we like it or not, no matter what these people have done, God hates the sin, but he loves them. He still wants his children to come home, not be returned to eternal destruction.

A Few Reflection Questions For Us

And while putting this list of questions together, I’m thinking about some of the political leaders and those that have done egregious crimes, as well as people I know personally.

• Is there someone right now I’ve written off instead of interceding for?
• What would it look like to bless what’s good in them before I pray against what’s wrong?
• Am I praying for their defeat, or their repentance?

Closing

The rain falls on all of us. That’s not unfair — it’s mercy, held open a little longer than we’d hold it ourselves. Let’s use the time to pray, not just to brace.