Praying For Those That Hurt Us

August 11, 2012 By

Today I am excited to introduce you to our guest, Christine Wright.  Here is a little bit about Christine:

Christine is a married, mom of four (ages 2 to 15). Between having a preschooler, elementary, middle and high schooler, she doesn't know if she is coming or going most days! She has been known to forget things often! One thing she will never forget though, is Who’s grace is enabling her to soar to heights she never thought possible. Living far from God, for much of her adult life, has led to many heartbreaks but it has been amazing to see His redemptive powers in her life and the life of her family. Her greatest desire is just to stay in the center of His will. She recently began blogging at www.livingjoel225.com

Christine Writes:

Have you ever been shocked by who God has called you to pray for?

God threw me a curveball recently. He asked me to pray for some people. And when I say pray, I mean pray. Serious, focused prayer. For their salvation, for their peace, for God’s
blessing over their life. He showed me the situation they were in and how to stand in the gap for them. He’d rarely requested anything so specific of me before.

And I didn’t want to.

I sat astonished. I never saw it coming.

Soon after I heard Him, the tears came. I cried because I didn’t think I was strong enough to honor what God was calling me to. Tears, because I knew, wrapped inside my pain, there was beauty. I could see the love in His request, but not enough to want to be a part of the
story He was weaving for them.

These were people who had hurt me – were in the process of hurting me – in cruel ways. I’d been praying for an ending, for God to speak to them and show them the pain they were causing.

Not this.

Here’s the kicker…because sometimes God takes things a step further…He wanted me to stop praying for the dream I’d had for years. The prayer of my heart. In exchange for praying for them.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I cried even harder. And then, in obedience, I confessed everything. And prayed through my tears. Pitiful at first, but better as I went on.

Time went by. I started hearing the most amazing reports…God was moving mighty in their lives.

Then, in a way only God could do, they became a huge answer to prayer for my own family.

Only God.

Since then? They continue to do well and the prayer that had been the “dream of my heart” for so long has taken a back seat. I rarely think of it.

Is He calling you to pray for someone who hurt you? It’s not easy, but keep these in mind:

● Time is of the essence. When I don’t want to do something, I can move very, very slowly. I put it off and tomorrow becomes the next day, and so on. I’ve noticed, the prayer burdens I’ve felt the strongest are often very time-sensitive.

● Take it to Him, even in tears and deep sighs, if prayer is hard to come by. If the words don’t come, trust Jesus to make intercession. “Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.” Hebrews 7:25 (NIV)

● Sit with Him, every chance you get. Even sitting quietly outside, admiring His work while you might not think of this as prayer, any time spent with Him, will prepare your heart. “Praise be to His glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory.” Psalm 72:19 (NIV)

● Always remember, His ways are higher than our ways. If we could peer into the unseen, we would be amazed at all He is doing. You never know how the seemingly impossible prayers He is requesting of you, might be used. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)

When I handed over my prayer, and picked up God’s, He put new dreams in my heart. Then, He started making those dreams, I never knew I had, come true. Trust Him and His call, anytime you feel that tug on your heart.

Blessings,

Christine

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11 Comments | Filed Under: Following God, Marriage/Relationships, Prayer, Uncategorized
About Ruth Schwenk

Ruth is the wife of a pastor, who is her best friend and the love of her life. She is a blessed homeschooling mother to her four beautiful children, and she eagerly awaits meeting her five others in heaven. She has a passion for following God, leading worship, rescuing orphans, and inspiring others to create a God honoring family.

She thoroughly enjoys warm spring breezes, blooming lilacs, tall skim mochas with whipped cream, root-lifter, eye cream, gel polish, laughing (lots of it), venti iced teas, exclamation points!!, family worship time, and snuggling up to read a good book with her family.

She is the creator of The Better Mom and she tweets at thebettermom.

  • Colleen

    Thank you SO much for this timely post. I was especially touched by the words that time is of the essence in these situations…
    I have some people who have hurt me who I am terribly reluctant to offer up in prayer. This helps and I appreciate it. Thanks again.

    • http://www.livingjoel225.com/ Christine

      Colleen, it is incredibly hard. Even after all this…sometimes I have days where my first thought is, “Oh no…I so don’t want to do that.” Offer that resistance up to God. Sometimes the “pain in the offering” is so strong, it feels it will never get better. I have done what Roman 8:26 says to do, and just groaned. Jesus will make intercession. : )

  • Jen

    Praise God. He is in the business of transforming hearts. This is possibly the most powerful , profound blog post to have come across my Facebook feed. The Holy Spirit did something similar for me just last week, although mine involved time in court with a stranger. As it came to crunch time, all I could pray was grace for the other person. My eyes filled with tears as I realized the transformation of my heart was the “prize”, which in turn showed me more of the heart of God. “and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”

    • http://www.livingjoel225.com/ Christine

      Oh Jen, that is beautiful. What a testimony you have. He broke your heart for what breaks His. It’s as if the air in the room changes when you have something like that happen…and all of a sudden, it’s just you and God. He is using you in a powerful way…in the lives of strangers…and, I imagine, in the lives of people who know you! : )

  • Lynn

    Yes. This is so true. I recently started praying for people I felt hurt me because I realized I was incredibly bitter to them. I prayed they would be blessed and I was the one that was blessed–by the removal of the bitterness that was turning me into a person I didn’t want to be. I thought I would never feel positively towards these people again but now I do! God did it! This is such an important topic, bitterness is so toxic and Christians need to do everything they can to avoid it–prayer is the best way I’ve found!!!

    • http://www.livingjoel225.com/ Christine

      Lynn, you are so right! Isn’t prayer so powerful??? I am always shocked at the ways God will move in response to it (although, not always in ways we might like initially – always in ways that are for our best). And I love how He can change even the most hardest of hearts, if we just let Him. : ) Thank you for sharing!

  • Sad/Angry/Confused

    Oh boy. *sigh*

    So, my husband is a pastor, and as anyone in ministry knows, you and your family become a target for everyone who’s unhappy with anyone else in the church. “Why don’t you tell so-and-so to BACK OFF from my pet project,” said one to my husband. And another said, “Well if so-and-so was listening to the LORD and not their own selfishness, they’d see that I’m supposed to do such-and-such so THEY can back off.”

    Fast forward a few weeks… the bickering has gotten worse and worse… people are LEAVING the church over this STUPID argument. Things came to a head, then seemed to blow over. And the people remaining, (who are our friends!), made a commitment last week to begin a new ministry program within our small church.
    And this week, for reasons as yet unknown to us, they up and left. Just left and typed letter to my husband on his desk saying that as of Monday they will no longer be a part of our congregation.

    Our reaction was of sadness, anger, and confusion. Didn’t they make a commitment with us just a few days ago? Haven’t we gone to great lengths to make them feel welcome? (OK not everyone did, but MY family did,)

    So many emotions washed over us and still we stand strong with each other and the Lord. We understand some things better now, but things are still confusing, especially for me. In a minute, before bed, I was gong to pray, but not necessarily for them.

    Now I feel that familiar tug on my heart and I know that I must. So thank you for bringing it up. I’m tired of this being upset about things/people I cannot control anyway.

    • http://www.livingjoel225.com/ Christine

      I can’t begin to imagine how hard that is. It sounds like you have every reason to be sad, angry, confused. I know that feeling you refer to of being so tired of being upset about things/people you can’t control. Oh, do I ever. I wrote a post on my blog about it…about going from hopelessly “walking in circles” to praying in circles.

      How awesome it is that you are open to God’s tugs on your heart. With all that pain that is swirling around that situation, your obedience to His call to prayer is a light that will break through any despair. (ok, that wasn’t supposed to rhyme, but it’s too late and my brain is too tired to try and un-rhyme it!) I will pray for you as well, my friend.

  • http://twitter.com/MimiBakerMN MimiBakerMN

    Several months ago, God called me to pray for a situation that I was very close to, but the prayers were completely different from what I wanted. I cried SO hard when he showed me how to pray and he showed me more specifically who to pray for, not just the situation and that made it even harder, but the obedience was good. I still don’t know the results of the prayers, and I may never have the chance to know, but God is good, and faithful. He knows the end and that’s what matters! Thank you for sharing! It was a good reminder for me!

    • http://www.livingjoel225.com/ Christine

      WOW! I think those prayers we offer through our tears are so, so special to God. There was a very good reason for you needing to pray for them and like you said, you may just never know why…but how awesome is it to know God asked and you responded! Thank you.

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