Jesus said to His followers, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” Matthew 5:44 KJV.

The definition of “despiteful” is quite descriptive – intense ill will or spite: black, evil, hateful, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, nasty, poisonous, spiteful, venomous, vicious, wicked.  I’m sure that we could all expand the list with any number of things that have been said or done to us by people over the years.

We need to understand that most attacks that we experience in life are not really about us. Ultimately, they are the enemy’s attempt to hinder the plan of God by stopping us from fulfilling His purpose for our lives. We sometimes have the unfortunate opportunity to be the subject of people’s misguided conversations, prejudgments, misrepresentations, persecutions, and even occasionally their intense “ill will”.

How can we, in a sincere heartfelt way, pray for someone who has treated us in such a manner? The short answer begins with knowing who we are in Christ.

I am realising more and more how much of our ability to walk out the Christian life goes back to our revelation, understanding, and knowledge of who we are IN Christ.

A sign of spiritual maturity is our ability to remain unchanged by praise or criticism. How does that affect the way we pray for our enemies? If we know who we are in Christ, we will remain secure when persecution or criticism comes. Instead of being threatened, hurt, or wounded, we will have compassion on the inflictor of the pain.

Some may be sincerely misguided in their actions, not realising that they are being used to cause harm. Others may be lashing out from intense personal pain, because we know that “hurting people hurt people”. We may even encounter some evil, wicked, faithless individuals who are bent on inflicting “intense ill will”.  This last group clearly needs our prayers so that they be drawn to the Lord and repent. Regardless, they all need an encounter with God’s goodness and grace.

The more we grow in our revelation of who we are IN Christ, the better we’ll understand how deeply loved and accepted we are. Our position in His Body is forever established and secure. Instead of our prayers being filtered through hurt or pain, our response to our enemies will flow from a heart of compassion. From our position IN Christ, we can love, bless, do good, and sincerely pray for enemies.