Daily Devotional
Scriptural Compositions
19/1/24
Praying for Our Enemies

And Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing His clothes among themselves.

Luke 23:34

We have all been hurt by someone in our life one time or another. We live in a broken world with broken people who offend each other. As a result of this understanding that we are all broken people who have offended each other we must learn to forgive.

Forgiveness is not a human act per say. It is not a behavior from our canal self. Our canal self desires to get even and settle scores but in our Christlike self we are taught to forgive.
Jesus set the example of forgiveness at Calvary when he was being beaten by soldiers for doing nothing wrong. He asked God for those who were maltreating him to be forgiven.

To become like Jesus you must learn to forgive. You must let go of your biggest hurts and pain. You must allow God to heal that part of you that has been bruised by the brokenness and shortcomings of someone else.
You have to forgive those who hurt you because God tells us to do so.

When you forgive others you open doors for yourself and when you don’t you close doors for yourself. Resentment is like drinking poison and thinking someone else will experience the penalty of the act. Jesus not only teaches us to forgive. He tells us to pray for our enemies. Praying for our enemies heals us of whatever resentment we hold. By praying for them we have let their act towards us to be judged by God himself.

Is there someone who has offended you? How will Jesus’ example help you to forgive that person?

Key point: No matter how badly we are hurt learning to forgive clears our hearts of every possible bitterness and resentment.

Prayer : Lord help me to forgive those who have hurt me and also pray for them to Change their behavior.

Soibi Versatile is a writer for Jesus Community Network.

PRAYER IS SECURITY, SAFETY AND SUCCESS