Let’s Pray for Our Enemies

It’s not easy, but it’s what we’re called to do

Want to watch? Here’s the video. Prefer to read? Scroll down for the transcript.

One of the hardest things we are commanded to do as Christians is to pray for our enemies.

It’s just hard.

One of the most powerful times that lesson was made clear to me was the Sunday following September 11, 2001. We were in church, and during the prayer time, most of the prayers that were being offered up from the congregation were for the people who were victims of the attacks.

One very wise woman who was sitting in the back of the sanctuary raised her hand and said, “We need to pray for the hijackers.”

You could just feel the reaction of: No!

At that point, we didn’t have a death count, but we knew thousands of people had died just a few days before.

And she was saying that we need to pray for the people who committed that atrocity.