Little Johnny (or Jenny) and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother’ s house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away. ‘Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer.’ said his mother... ‘I don’t need to,’ the boy replied. ‘Of course, you do.’ his mother insisted. ‘We always say a prayer before eating at our house.’ ‘That’s at our house.’ Johnny explained. ‘But this is Grandma’s house and she knows how to cook!’” Johnny has a lot of confidence in his Grandma’s cooking, but he seems a little confused on why we pray. I think Johnny is not alone, because most of us aren’t clear on prayer. Jesus, on the other hand, is super clear about praying.
First, when we pray for our enemies and those who harass us, we pray for their good. It’s natural to want to hurt our enemies. Jesus points that out when He says, “You have heard that it was said, “Love your friend and hate your enemy.” It’s the way the world tells us it should be: what goes around comes around. Revenge is a dish best served cold. And when we are hurt, striking out is often our first reaction. During the dark days of autumn, 1936, the empire of Japan invaded China through Korea and into Manchuria. Thousands upon thousands of Japanese troops poured in, bringing their tanks, bombers and a ruthless brand of extermination and torture. The Japanese feared the Chinese Christians and went out of their way to destroy their churches and kill believers whenever they had the chance. Among the believers were the president of China, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Madame Chiang. At the height of the conflict when the Japanese troops were at the walls of the capital city of Beijing, Madame Chiang rushed through the chaos to her mother’s room in the palace. Finding her Mother’s door closed she gently pushed it open. Finally, as her eyes became accustomed to the dim light, she saw her mother in the corner of the room, kneeling in prayer. As the bomb flashes lit up the room she could see that her mother’s face was peaceful, even content. Madame Chiang rushed over to her and knelt beside her. “Mother,” she whispered. “You are so powerful in prayer. Are you praying for the defeat of our enemy? Will you ask God to crush them before our entire country is wasted? Could you pray for an earthquake to annihilate them?” The old lady smiled gravely and then gently caressed her daughter’s face. “No, my daughter. This is not my prayer. When I pray, don’t expect me to insult God’s intelligence by asking Him to do something which would be unworthy of you, a mortal.” It was a lesson Madame Chiang never forgot over the many years she and her husband spent in exile on the island of Taiwan. (Adapted from Macartney’s Illustrations) Certainly, as we read the Psalms, there are times when the writers get so carried away with their passion for God, that they begin to think that a holy God would want their enemies destroyed. We just don’t see Jesus do that. When he prays for the people who oppose him, it’s with sadness, compassion, and hope. He prays for Peter, when he knows Peter will betray Him. He prays for Judas, who has Jesus arrested. So when we pray, let’s be clear, praying for destruction and evil is unworthy of God, so we pray for what is best for people.
But how do we know what is best for people? This leads into the second idea for praying: it takes humility. One Sunday morning at a small southern church, the new pastor called on one of his older deacons to lead in the opening prayer. The deacon stood up, bowed his head and said, “Lord, I hate buttermilk.” The pastor opened one eye and wondered where this was going. The deacon continued, “Lord, I hate lard.” Now the pastor was totally perplexed. The deacon continued, “Lord, I ain’t too crazy about plain flour. But after you mix ‘em all together and bake ‘em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits. Lord, help us to realize when life gets hard, when things come up that we don’t like, whenever we don’t understand what You are doing, that we need to wait and see what You are making. After you get through mixing and baking, it’ll probably be something even better than biscuits. And if God has a better idea of what is best for us, won’t that be true for others? The problem with me deciding what is best for my enemies is that I am doing that out of pain, while God decides what is best for even my enemies out of love. Jesus says, “[God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Praying for our enemies and those who harass us will require us to ask God to show us what God wants for them.
Praying for our enemies even loving them is not normal. It’s not natural. It is supernatural, and it can only happen when our hearts have been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. It’s this kind of love that Jesus showed as He hung dying on the cross, in an agony of pain—he prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” It’s this kind of love that transforms lives, and not just of those around us. Soren Kierkegaard writes, “Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.” How can we not be changed, when we seek God’s guidance with humility, look with compassion and humanity on our enemies, and pray for not just for what we think would be best, but for what God does. So let us learn from Jesus how to pray for enemies, and so release into the world—including their hearts and ours—the transforming power of God!