People
who truly love the Lord Jesus Christ have this “check” in their spirits that
tells them that such desires for vengeance are not the way the church prays for
our enemies. We know that, “Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”[3]
Our minds understand we are to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Jesus own words).[4] Jesus was very clear when he elaborated, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who
hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”[5]
Some of God’s children have been known to feel a genuine
let-down when they accept that they cannot pray one of those, “God, get them
good!” kind of prayers. After entertaining all the possibilities, their desire
to have God’s will in their lives wins the day, and they reluctantly try to
pray the way they are told.
But, what if we can pray those in-the-word-of-God prayers?
What if our either-or praying is missing the opportunity to pray out of both
sides of our hearts in the same prayer? What if our desire to “do the right thing”
is stealing away our opportunity to experience the kind of praying that
combines both our feelings and our faith? What if God’s word still invites us
to the release of expressing those heartfelt prayers of divine justice, while
surrendering ourselves to the “good and
acceptable and perfect”[6] will of God.
What I mean is that there is good reason to believe that
God still invites us to pray out all that we are feeling, while also
surrendering ourselves to the kind of loving, praying-for-blessing he wants us
to express on behalf of our enemies. After all, is this not what we often see
in the Psalms themselves, that a writer expresses exactly how he was feeling
about something, but then concludes by surrendering himself to the divine will
on the matter? Asaph told us all about his envy of the wicked,[7] but then how God transformed him through the
renewal of his mind[8] so that he prayed that beautiful expression, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And
there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”[9] Methinks that the new covenant invites us to the
same heart-to-heart praying that covers the full expression of our feelings and
our faith in one fell swoop, so to speak.
My favorite praying-out-of-both-sides-of-my-heart prayer is
what Jesus expressed to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. As Jesus
approached the day of his crucifixion, which would include his propitious
bearing of the wrath of God against our sins, he prayed this fascinating
prayer, “Father,
if you are willing, remove this
cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”[10]The cup of suffering he was about to experience was so grievous to
him that we are told, “And being in an
agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat
became like great drops of blood
falling down to the ground.”[11]
The
point is that Jesus prayed for something he knew his Father would not do, but
he prayed it because that was what he was feeling. He was experiencing horror
and sorrow and agony of soul because of what was about to happen to him. He put
into words a request that the Father could not answer with a yes. He clearly
showed that he wanted his Father’s ultimate will to be done in his life, but he
still voiced, or expressed, the way the approaching hour was affecting him. Or,
dare I say, the way the anticipation of his suffering was making him feel.
I
take Jesus’ example as an invitation to pray to God in the same way. If what
someone did to me is causing me heartache, I can tell my Father all about how I
am feeling. If someone’s recurring “getting away with it” makes my heart cry
out at the grave injustice that the world, the flesh and the devil promote, I
can tell my Father how I am doing. That is, as long as I do not conclude my
prayer until my heart has come to rest in the reverential submission of, “nevertheless, not my will, by yours be
done.”
Now, you know those situations where two
professing-to-be-children of God both think they are right and the other is
wrong, and they both think the other has done something so wicked that those
God-get-them prayers seem both good and just? What would happen if both of them
told God how they were feeling, and both surrendered to God with their “nevertheless, not my will, but yours be
done”?
If both sides do the same thing, pour out their hearts to
God about all that they feel, and then surrender their hearts to the divine
will, there will be God-honoring reconciliations that come about because
everyone involved has asked to know and do the will of God. Since God has a
will for all his children to eagerly “maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”,[12] we can be sure that praying for this reality will lead
us all into blessings of reconciliation that feel much better than those short
seasons of hurt. I have actually experienced this before, and it is worth
having!
Because Scripture presents the experience of God’s will as
the supreme good of the children of God,[13] it doesn’t matter how hurt we are, how much poison and
confusion has poured out of our souls in prayer, or how much our minds need to
be changed about anything that has taken place. If we end every prayer with the
affirmation that we are denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily, and
following Christ wherever he leads,[14] we will find him bringing us into the kinds of
transformations that would qualify as, “from
one degree of glory to another,”[15] just as Paul described.
So, when you feel like you’re in a situation where someone fits
to a T those wicked-hearted men who got Daniel thrown in a lion’s den,[16] be like a little child who climbs up on your Father’s
lap and tells him exactly how you feel. Then lean back into his loving arms and
listen to what he has to say.[17] I have seen the rest that comes to children’s hearts
and minds when they do this with us, when they pour out their feelings about
some grave injustice, and then listen to the wisdom of our years lead them to a
resolution that is better than they could have imagined.
In fact, I have seen children playing together quite
joyfully after episodes where both sides had wanted me to hear about the
terrible things the other one did to them, but they discovered that I had
things to deal with in them both, and a resolution they had not considered. I
am convinced that, if I pray that way, pouring out my feelings, and
surrendering to the sound of my Shepherd’s voice on the matter, that I will one
day see the same thing happen amongst us childish little adults as well.
From
my heart,
Monte
©
2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless
otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1] 18 Then they said,
“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from
the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let
us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his
words.” 19 Hear me, O Lord, and listen to the voice of my adversaries. 20 Should
good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember
how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from
them. 21 Therefore deliver up their children to famine; give
them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and
widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be struck down by
the sword in battle. 22 May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to
take me and laid snares for my feet. 23 Yet you, O Lord, know all their plotting to kill me. Forgive not their
iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before
you; deal with them in the time of your anger. (Jeremiah 18)
[2] Esther 3-7
[3] Romans 12:19
[4] Matthew 5:44
[5] Luke 6:27-28
[6] Romans 12:2
[7] Psalm 73
[8] Romans 12:1-2
[9] Psalm 73:25
[10] Luke 22:42
[11] Luke 22:44
[12] Ephesians 4:3
[13] “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.’” (John 4:34)
[14] “And he said to all, ‘If
anyone would come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.’” (Luke 9:23)
[15] “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the
glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of
glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:18)
[16] Daniel 6
[17] For me, this looks
like getting up in the morning, pouring my heart out to God, meditating on
whatever Scriptures are before me, and receiving whatever is the revealed will
of God, applied without favoritism or partiality to whatever I am going
through.
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