With
this as an illustration, I would like to show how we can repurpose a typical
stumbling-stone to prayer and turn it into a stepping-stone to prayer. In a
sense, let us picture how we can take those barriers that tangle around our
feet and trip us up from running the race of faith,[1] and
turn those very things into the means of us becoming God-trusting,
Christ-centered, Spirit-filled children of God who change the world through
prayer.[2]
I want to show an example of one of the
most common barriers to prayer turning into one of the most liberating
building-blocks of prayer. From that, I am sure we will see how we can do this
same thing with many other problems and struggles we are facing.
If
you have been following my blog for any time you have likely picked up that I
do not agree with the teaching that says we are to forgive people who are not
repenting of their sins against us. Not only is there no teaching in the Bible
that demonstrates that we should do that, but it contradicts things the Bible
does teach regarding forgiveness.
While
I believe it is wrong to teach people to forgive unrepentant people, I
absolutely believe in freedom from bitterness, holding grudges, hatred, and
even the victim-mindset that has become a safe-haven for too many people. The
primary means of gaining this freedom is to pray for the people who are hurting
us, abusing us, or mistreating us in anyway.
People
mistakenly teach that when Jesus was enduring crucifixion, he forgave his
abusers. However, Jesus neither taught us to forgive unrepentant people, nor
did he ever show himself forgiving someone who was unrepentant.
Instead,
Jesus had already taught us a variety of ways of responding to people who were sinning
against us. He told us to, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who
abuse you.”[3] When he later spoke from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do,”[4] he
was not forgiving them, but praying for those who were abusing him, just as he
had taught us to do.
From
this, we can follow Jesus’ example, not thinking we need to forgive an abusive
person in order to be free of bitterness, but that we can pray for them exactly
the way Jesus did, entrusting any future experience of forgiveness to God.
In
practical terms, to turn the barrier of bitterness into an opportunity for
prayer, we will find a great peace and joy when we can pray, “Father, forgive them.” The freedom does
not come from forgiving, but from learning that trust in God as Father where we
will ask him to do whatever it takes in order that that person could be
forgiven.
Let
us throw out any idea that God would violate his own word in forgiving people
who are still living in their sin. If his word says that we must confess our
sins to him in order for him to forgive our sins and purify us from the
unrighteousness of what we have done,[5] he
will not forgive an abuser without leading them to such confession as we
ourselves have expressed to God. If God’s word says that he blesses the poor in
spirit who mourn their sin, who meekly accept their inability to fix
themselves, and who then hunger and thirst after righteousness,[6] he
is not going to answer our prayer of blessing those who curse us[7]
without exposing their poverty in such a way that it brings them to repentance
and faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
In
the simplest terms, the only thing we need to do to turn a barrier into a
building-block of prayer is to pray about the barrier. That person you don’t
pray for because you hate them and what they did to you, start praying about
your wounds, asking God to heal you independent of anything that person has to
do to fix what they have done wrong, and ask God to do something in that person’s
life that would give him glory. By doing such a thing as this, you have turned
a stumbling-block to prayer into a stepping-stone to prayer.
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] See Hebrews 11 as the
record of testimonies of faith, and Hebrews 12:1-3 as the conclusion regarding
putting aside anything that would hinder us from such faith, and running this
race with perseverance.
[2] When our prayers start
with ourselves, and our struggles to trust God God’s sovereign goodness in
handling whatever we have gone through, and anyone who has wronged us, we
become those branches that abide in the vine in such a healthy love-bond, that
we end up bearing “much fruit” in the lives of others.
[3] Luke 6:27-28
[4] Luke 23:34
[5] I John 1:9
[6] Matthew 5:3-6
[7] Luke 6:38
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