Pray For Your Enemies

"Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute you." Matthew 6:44

 Maybe today, you are dealing with someone who hurt you. You are having to cope with the pain of someone coming against you and trying to knock you down. A lot of the time, our thought when it comes to these things, is to get back at these people. To seek revenge. We want them to feel the way we are feeling. If this is you today, I want you to stop. I want you to take a minute and really, really think about what seeking revenge on that person will do, not only to them, but to you. You may think that it would make you feel good, but you are wrong. In fact, it will do just the opposite. It will make them feel bad, and make you feel even worse. So what are we supposed to do? This person hurt me. I need to do something. Well, actually, there is something that you can do. You, can take some time and pray for them.
 Now, I know praying for the person who hurt you is probably one of the last things on your mind right now, but you would actually be surprised as to what it can do. Think about it this way. The person who hurt you, they don't just hurt you for no apparent reason, but they might just have some inner turmoil going on the we can't see. They may be going through a really difficult time in their life, and no, this does not give them an excuse to hurt others, but it does give us a reason to pray for them.
 So today, you need to start out by forgiving that person, which I know can be quite hard for us. But just know this, YOU were first forgiven so that we could go out and forgive others. After that, pray for them. Ask God to be with them, to find them, or for them to find Him, and you will see how much better you actually feel.