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Pray for those who hurt you

2 older men sitting on a bench outside of a store, having a lively discussion or argument.
Image by Mary Bettini Blank from Pixabay

Sometimes the people who hurt me the most are those closest to me. Maybe that’s true for most adults.

While we’re in school, or even within a work environment, bullies and mean, horrible people may make our lives miserable. I feel like they are easier to deal with (or get over) than loved ones who are hurtful. When it’s a loved one, there’s the added burden of how to handle it and how quickly we need to forgive and move on.

Do we lash back? Do we sit like doormats and just put up with it? Do we get defensive? I don’t know. I just don’t know. So, I pray.

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
Matthew 5:44 NKJV

Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount, “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” (Matthew 5:39 NKJV).

“Jesus is here saying that the true Christian has learned to resent no insult and to seek retaliation for no slight.” (William Barclay, 1953)

It seems like a backward way of stating, ‘don’t be resentful, and don’t seek retaliation.’

I’ve been trying to give everything up to God. I can rest in His sovereignty.


Please join me this week in praying for those who have been hurt by the words or actions of a loved one. Pray that they look to the Lord for healing. Pray that their hearts soften so they can rise above the situation, that they find the strength and courage to forgive their offender. Let’s also pray for the person who inflicted the injury that they might become more kind and tenderhearted.