By: Jenifer Metzger
Recently I got a God sized lesson in praying for my enemies.
My son, daughter (in-love), and grandson do not attend church with us, they attend a different church. Over the last few years I've had people ask if that bothers me, not having our kids in church with us. The answer is always absolutely not! What matters to my husband and I is that our kids are in a Bible believing church, not that they are in our church.
Several weeks ago, my daughter (in-love) told me that someone came to her and told her that since they weren't close to their parents anymore, this person wanted to step into that role for them. This person assumed that just because we don't attend the same church, there wasn't a relationship! This person assumed that we weren't there for our kids, that we didn't talk to them. I immediately felt like this person was trying to pull my kids and grandson from me and I was livid.
After all, we are there for our kids. We talk to them all the time, we have visits with them regularly, we watch our grandson, we are blessed to be so close to them; just because we don't see them within the four walls of a church building on Sunday morning doesn't mean we don't have a relationship with them. My mama/grammie bear heart was ready for attack.
As the days turned into weeks, my anger deepened. That is when I heard God say, "Pray for her." What!? She is trying to take my family away! "Pray for her." God, I can't do that. "Pray for her." But I know her! I know she wasn't innocently coming to them in love and trying to help them! "You don't know her motives. Pray for her." Why God!? "Pray for her."
After days of wrestling with God, I began to pray for this person. I never brought up the situation in my prayers, I simply prayed for her. I prayed God would work in her life, bless her relationships, her health, her finances, her job, all she puts her hands to.
As I spent time praying for her, my anger begin to fade away. My resentment begin to melt. The truth is, I don't know her motive, I probably never will. Maybe, just maybe, she was simply trying to be there for my kids. Maybe, just maybe, she was innocent. And even if her motives were not pure, if she was trying to be underhanded, she has to answer to God for that. But I have to answer to God for my reaction and response and I want God to be pleased with how I handled it, how I prayed for her.
When people hurt us, we need to remember two important things.
1. We don't know their motives, nor their heart. We might think we do, but we don't. I was doing what I accused her of, assuming the worst. We can't know, so we shouldn't assume the worst.
2. God calls us to love our enemies, even if they are only enemies in our mind for a moment. He calls us to bless them and to pray for them.
If you are holding onto hurt from someone who might be considered an enemy, someone who has done or said something that invoked pain or anger, it's time to release them to God in prayer.
Discussion:
1. Have you been hurt by someone recently? Or maybe you're holding onto a past hurt?
2. Have you honestly tried praying for this person? Lifting them to God and praying for different areas of their life? If so, how did that make you feel? If not, what is holding you back?
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Oh, how I needed to read this. Our ex son in law, who has sole custody of our grandson, met with us and told us if we did not call his new wife "Mommy" and our daughter (who is the mother) by her name and not "mommy" in front of our grandson, that we could no longer be a part of his little life. We have been very active in our grandson's life since birth. He has stayed at our house at least 10 days per month. We are all Christians and I cannot understand why our ex son in law is doing this. We, nor our daughter, is allowed any contact with our grandson. We had to file for Grandparent's Rights and will go to court soon. This has broken my heart. Would you pray for us? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI will certainly pray for you and this situation for God's mercy, wisdom and peace to prevail
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