What It Means to Pray for Your Enemy

Solid Joys Daily Devotional

Desiring God

Religion & Spirituality, Devotional, Joy, Solid Joys, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, 163859, Jesus, Daily Devotional, John Piper

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2026

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Don’t just do good things for your enemies. Desire their best, and express those desires in prayer, even when they’re nowhere around.

Transcript

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0:00.0	April 7.
0:02.2	What it means to pray for your enemy.
0:06.6	Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
0:10.5	Matthew 544.
0:14.2	Prayer for your enemies is one of the deepest forms of love because it means that you have
0:20.2	to really want that something good
0:23.3	happened to them. You might do nice things for your enemy without any genuine desire that
0:29.8	things go well with them. But prayer for them is in the presence of God who knows your heart, and prayer is interceding with God
0:41.2	on their behalf. It may be for their conversion, it may be for their repentance, it may be that they
0:51.2	would be awakened to the enmity in their hearts, it may be that they would be awakened to the enmity in their hearts.
0:55.2	It may be that they will be stopped in their downward spiral of sin, even if it takes
1:00.4	disease or calamity to do it.
1:03.5	But the prayer Jesus has in mind here is always for their good.
1:10.5	This is what Jesus did as he hung on the cross.
1:14.7	Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
1:19.2	Luke 2334.
1:22.3	And it's what Stephen did as he was being stoned.
1:26.7	Falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice,
1:29.9	Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
1:34.7	Acts 7.60.
1:38.7	Jesus is calling us not just to do good things for our enemy,
1:43.7	like greeting them and helping supply their needs,
	...

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