He kicked me hard when it was his turn
He forgot that life goes around in circles
Now it is my turn and I see fear in his eyes
He is certain I will kick twice as hard
And he is right, he has cause to be afraid
Very afraid, for I would kick him worse
… but for God.

How many of us truly pray for enemies who have not yet done us harm, much less those that are plotting to finish us? How many of us can look beyond our hurts to pray for those who despise, curse, and use us spitefully? I know a few who have. I also learned it at a time when I was treated very unfairly by someone whom I had never wronged.

During that difficult season in my life, my prayers were focused on God rescuing me and paying them back in their own coin. But God would not have that from me. Instead, He asked me to pray every day for one hour for the person. What? How could God ask such of me? I resisted it the first few times. “I don’t even pray one hour every day for myself and those I love. Why should I do that for this person? God this is not fair!” With God, there are only two options: obey or disobey. When He would not back down, I had no choice but to obey. Thus, every day, I spent one solid hour and sometimes more, praying for someone that was hurting me.

I did not know what to pray for at first, so I had to depend on the Holy Spirit. With time, the words flowed, and I began to stand in the gap for this person, for their family and for whatever issues they were dealing with. With time, I began to pray God’s will over them. Something that started out so hard eased as I followed God into the place of intercession in obedience to His instruction.

It was during that season I learned that it is impossible not to feel gracious toward a person we pray for extensively. Despite our thoughts and feelings for those who disappoint, reject, and hurt us, as we take the person before God in prayer, His love melts our hearts toward the subjects of our supplication. As we obey God despite our ideas of justice and feelings of hurt, His love softens our hearts – hearts that are being hardened by the disappointments we are dealt.

In that season, I realized also that my softened heart made it possible for God to till and plant seeds of grace and wisdom in me. As I spent one hour everyday praying for this person, God opened my heart to own the disappointment I had felt because of their action. I was able to face the feeling of rejection that I always feared with grace that only God can give. I realized as I prayed for them that my anger was soothed by God to whom I was surrendering in obedience. Gradually, as I continued to walk in obedience, God not only revealed the state of my heart, He also began to soften my heart toward them, and my attitude toward the thought of them.

In the place of intercession, compassion flows out of our softened hearts toward the very sources of our pains and we genuinely begin to pray for their needs. This must prove an effective cure for anger, unforgiveness, hatred and negative feelings of disappointment and rejection toward those who hurt and use us. Pray daily for them. The harder your feelings toward them, the longer the prayers should be. The prayer may start with how we feel and what they did but as we obey God, we will realize a shift from us and our pain, to the person and their needs.

God can use us to bless those who curse us. God can use us to liberate those who hate us. God can use us to work the promotion of those who use us and get them out of our way so we can work where we are in peace, if He does not want to move us elsewhere yet. God can use us to accomplish the impossible in the lives of those who do the unimaginable to us. Could it be possible that is why He allows them to strike us? So He could use us to help them directly or indirectly? His ways are past finding.
Excerpt from Out of the Ashes Arise by Dr. Glory C. Odemene Out of the Ashes Arise!

Blessings
Glory