“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:43-44)

I have a friend at work who is going through a very difficult family situation. The worst part is that outside parties are making the decisions, leaving his hands tied with little that he can do to affect the outcome. And while these other individuals aren’t necessarily his enemies, they are forcing a path that just doesn’t seem good for anyone. Now my wife and I will be praying for him and his family (and I would ask each of you reading this to keep him in your prayers as well), but I must admit that my first inclination was not to pray for these other people too. Keeping in mind, these are not terrible people but more like folks who work within a terrible system. But even so, here is a real-world scenario where I can see just how difficult today’s verse can be. Sure, on a good day we would all naturally agree to pray for those who persecute us and “turn the other cheek.” But when you see a friend hurting and overwhelmed by the actions taken against them, you want to protect him/her. You want to raise up arms and call out the injustice of it all. And yet Jesus’ instruction is “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” After which Jesus explains “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” – Matthew 5:45. This is to say that our job is to pray for God’s creation, all of it, and let God’s reasoning on allowing good and evil be His. My friend is not a believer, but God is moving in his life. I did pray for the other people tonight. And I also prayed for God to provide, as only He can, and for my friend to recognize it.