Red Letters

Red Letters

A Prayer for Our Enemies

posted by Tom Davis | 7:57pm Saturday September 11, 2010

A difficult thing for me to do is pray for my enemies. Today, on September 11th,  I’m reminded of the evil in the world and how many enemies all of us have. What is our response? In Matthew 5:44 Jesus instructs us to pray for them: “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”


This is what Christ followers do. This is the new way of living in the Kingdom of God. It’s also life to our souls. Pray this prayer for our enemies today, even if it’s hard.

“Lord Jesus Christ, Who commands us to love our enemies, and those who defame and injure us, and to pray for them and forgive them; Who also prayed for Your enemies, who crucified you: grant us, we pray, the spirit of Christian reconciliation and meekness, that we may heartily forgive every injury and be reconciled with our enemies. Grant us to overcome the malevolence and offences of people with Christian meekness and true love of our neighbor. O Lord, grant to our enemies true peace and forgiveness of sins; and do not allow them to leave this life without true faith and sincere conversion. And help us repay evil with goodness, and to remain safe from the temptations of the devil and from all the perils which threaten us, in the form of visible and invisible enemies. Amen.”


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Comments read comments(5)
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Joni Sweet

posted September 11, 2010 at 8:26 pm


Tom,
That is the best prayer I’ve seen for an enemy prayer, really, it says it all & includes all. Thanks for that. I’d like to use it & reference it back to your blog on my blog if I may.?.?.
G-d Bless you on this day!
~Joni



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nnmns

posted September 12, 2010 at 8:54 am


You might add the plea to avoid over-reaction on our part. Oh, wait it’s too late: we already invaded Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, and now way too many of us are attacking moderate Muslims who had nothing to do with 9/11either.
As Nicholas Kristoff points out this only helps our real enemies.

Newsweek quoted a Taliban operative, Zabihullah, about opposition to the mosque near ground zero: “By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor. It’s providing us with more recruits, donations and popular support.” Mr. Zabihullah added, “The more mosques you stop, the more jihadis we will get.”

And it’s un-American.
Fear, hatred and revenge are bad not least because we make stupid decisions when driven by fear, hatred or revenge. And Republican leaders are helping foment this fear and hatred in hopes we’ll make at least one more bad decision.



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Tom Davis

posted September 12, 2010 at 7:49 pm


Absolutely Joni! It’s an ancient prayer that I contemporized a bit.



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Tania Daniels

posted September 13, 2010 at 6:13 am


Your thoughts and prayer are exactly what I have been writing about throughout the time of Ramadan. God is burdening me for the Muslim people.
During this past week, there has been much talk within my own family, on Facebook amongst friends and in the news, about Muslims and what our response should be. There is controversy stirring around the proposed building of a mosque, the burning of Korans as a show of strength, and the sadness and anger that is stirred up by our remembrances of September 11th.
How should we respond as Christians and Americans? What response would glorify God?
I believe we can find the right response if we look to our Lord Jesus as an example. He modeled for us both tenderness and strength. These two qualities, living within us and working in agreement, are what we need to respond to the Muslim question.
“Christ Jesus is the artist. He created the world with colors and textures human artists have tried for thousands of years to imitate. Christ Jesus is the musician. He gave the angels their voices. Christ Jesus is the tenderhearted, ministering to our every need.
Christ Jesus is also the warrior, forever leading us in triumphant procession, if only we will follow
(2 Corinthians 2:14). In our great weakness, He is strong. Christ Jesus is the blessed embodiment of both characteristics. He has set an example before us of true manhood and true womanhood,” (from A Heart Like His by Beth Moore).
We must model the tenderness of Christ toward the Muslims. Each Muslim was created in God’s image, tenderly and lovingly by His own hand. He desires their salvation. He loves them and asks each of us to love them, to desire good for them, to befriend them and share with them the good news of salvation.
Ultimately, the battle is not for freedom in America or anywhere else on this earth. It is ultimately for the freedom of each soul. Hatred and anger will only close doors to the Muslim world that need to be left open if they will ever have the hope of finding Christ as their Savior.
We must also model the strength of Christ toward the threat of an Islamic take-over of our nation and the world. When I survey the evil that is done in the name of this religion, it chills me. Two nights ago, I was viewing this website (Islamic honor killings). The evil that would cause a father to not only rape his own daughter but than brutally murder her is straight from the devil. And for a religion to say that this is okay, speaks volumes about the danger that lies inherent in the Islamic faith.
I believe that Satan knows his time is short. Christ will return in triumph and strength, but in the mean time, the devil is throwing every kind of evil and stronghold he can at the human race, and much of it is embodied in Islam. We must, as a nation, recognize this evil and do all we can to stop the spread of this religion to our own land and the other nations.
Yet, how do we show the strength to stop this evil? Is is ultimately through our military might? I don’t think so. Take Afghanistan and Iraq for an example. Has our military presence in these two nations truly stopped the spread of Islamic fundamentalism? Are the people any more free to choose Christ as their Savior or do they still live under the fear of honor killings and other such violence, if they leave Islam?
Do we kill them all? Does that really stop Islam? No…more and more young men, angered by loss and brainwashed by Imams, will step forward to fill the shoes of those who died in jihad. And ultimately, is that victory in Christ…killing human enemies? That was the mistake made by the Crusades.
The only way to truly stop the spread of Islam is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, showing strength toward Satan and gentleness toward the Muslims. We must win them with the love of Christ.
That is how the Romans, Vikings, Goths, African and Asian tribes, Irish Druids and so many others were turned from their murderous ways. It was with strength toward Satan and tenderness toward the individuals. They were stopped with the love of Christ.
We must model gentleness and strength toward any enemy in this world. It is not the way of weakness but the way of victory.



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Jason

posted September 13, 2010 at 10:05 am


Good thoughts Tom.



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