In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that we would be blessed and rewarded when persecution and ridicule comes our way because of our faith in God. [Matt 5:11-12]
A little further on in that sermon, He added: “But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.” [vs 44-45 NLT]
We have a responsibility to pray for those who set themselves up as our enemies to persecute us. It is vitally important that we do so. Personally, I’d like to pray Psalm 109 over a lot of people. It is one of those imprecatory songs, “may his days be few … may a creditor seize all he has … may no one extend kindness to him,” but I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind.
I think our prayers are to be more along the lines of how Paul prayed in his letters. “May the eyes of their hearts be enlightened … may they receive the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge.” [Ephesians 1]
We need to pray that those who oppose us see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. We need to pray that the god of this age no longer has the power to blind their minds. [2 Corinthians 4]
There are many who are in the Body of Christ who were once enemies of her. Paul, himself, was her persecutor and then became her greatest missionary. If it can happen to Paul, it can happen to our present-day enemies.
