A Prayer for Jerks
How do you pray for someone who has hurt you or wants to hurt you? Someone who is slandering you or just causing you grief.
Psalm 43 verse 1 is a start.
Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
The key in this Psalm and elsewhere in the Bible is to turn to God and let Him handle the problem. Romans 12 verse 18 and following expands on this as Paul tells us to live peaceably with others as it depends on us. In other words, don’t be the cause of the problem. Echoing what this Psalm says, Paul tells us to never take vengeance, let God do that.
Then Paul wraps it up by telling us not to let evil overcome us but overcome evil with good. Sometimes that’s hard. It doesn’t mean we don’t report crime to the police when a jerk becomes an abuser. It means we don’t use the evil methods of these jerks.
Without Jesus in our lives, we can’t live up to this and even with Jesus it is hard. But we must start with being like Jesus and the first step is to know Him as Savior. If you don’t, watch my video on the Gospel on YouTube or read on this Gospel link
