Can You Pray For Them Though?

Our mouths can run a mile a minute but when it comes down to praying, we get tongue tied.

Sometimes we cross paths with people who we don't see eye to eye with. Maybe they offended us with their view points or in some way, shape, form, or fashion, they've wronged us. It's okay that you won't be close to everyone you meet and it's alright to fall back from people who are no good for you and your walk with Christ. The thing that isn't alright is continuing to replay the cycle through gossip and bad memories of the person. Yes, people will have impure motives at times but your job is to be the bigger person and to also pray genuinely for them and to keep it moving. I have come to learn, through both experience and observation that when a person has been wronged and hasn't forgiven the person who has wronged them, their mouth runs the most through gossip or ill willed conversations. I've also learned that when a person constantly continues to discuss things negatively that have offended them or hurt them, they haven't let it go yet. The main thing here is genuine forgiveness, once you have forgiven someone wholeheartedly and left it at the altar, you'll be able to pray for that person/people/leader etc. The problem is, gossip is infectious and addicting to some people in the Body of Christ. Some people enjoy having a mutual dislike for others and in order for that to change, deliverance needs to take place. Where do you come in at? Well, you can use your long wooden spoon and feed them love and pray that God sets them free because there was a point in your life where you might have been toxic, but we rarely want to discuss that part right? Forgive what you may think is unforgivable, let go and rebuke any hidden residue within yourself and show the love of Christ. You may be reading this thinking "easier said than done" but it is possible. I apply this to my own life daily when needed.

Check yourself before you check someone else.

Self reflection plays an important part when you get saved. Yes, I'll be real with y'all, in the past, there were times where I was the toxic person and yet I wanted to play the victim for attention. I can speak of it openly because I have been freed from it. The very thing that turned me toxic to the mouth was that after getting bullied and rejected when I was younger in school, I had decided to play the quote on quote mean girl, it just wasn't as extreme as the things you might see on tv. I wasn't the best at friendships and I can admit that but that later turned me into a people pleaser where I had allowed others to walk all over me. Now then, presently speaking, I know what my own weak points are and the enemy will try to attack those points, but since I already know my own points, I'm aware of what to pray up and out of me and what to guard myself with. See, the enemy can only attack you with the old things that used to push your buttons or trigger you to become the person that you used to be. As we all know, we become a new creation when we give our lives to Christ. This is what I mean by checking yourself before checking someone else. You've got to make sure that YOU aren't the problem or the one who is causing bitterness, jealousy, resentment, or lies to run wild through the people you are around. Take time each day to repent and to ask God to reveal the points or areas within yourself in which you can improve on. It's important for self deliverance to take place and to confess to the Lord and repent, even down to your very thoughts because you never know what YOU may be doing that is unpleasing to God's will. Check YOURSELF before you check someone else. I'm talking to myself too.

When persecution starts, stay confident in the Lord.

When something looks different and doesn't follow tradition, the persecution will hit, especially when people feel as though they aren't included in a thing or accepted by certain people. ( WHO ARE YOU LIVING TO PLEASE?) They'll try their best to come against your true character and identity. Even though you have no problem with admitting your faults or mistakes, pointing out your short comings makes them feel good. When they begin to form a mutual dislike for you among others, the persecution can feel like a slap in the face especially when you had to go to war alongside them so that they could be set free. It can be frustrating when persecution comes from the very people that you had to sacrifice for. Take me for example, I'm a married woman and there has been plenty of times where all I wanted was time with my husband but because God would tell us to get others through deliverance and help others when we could, our time together would get cut short. When this or if this happens to you, it's important not to throw it in people's faces no matter how badly they come against you. It's your job to keep in mind that at least you were in position to help and be obedient when the Lord told you to. If pettiness or bitterness begins to rise within you, lay prostrate before God and repent and allow Him to remove everything that is not of Him from you. Going through persecution the first time brought me alot of pain and I couldn't grasp the point how people could come against others who have been with them through deliverance and times of helping. Now that I have been through it before, I know how to handle it now, can you say the same thing? Stay confident in the Lord when it happens and not big headed. Some people like to believe that being right is more important than admitting when God is truly in a thing. If you've been TRUTHFUL with YOURSELF and you've looked over everything that you're doing then that's when the Holy Spirit will pour into you what needs to be poured in. God doesn't agree with fleshly feelings and emotions so don't puff out your chest just because someone may agree with you. If you have taken the right steps then that's when you just trust that God will handle the persecution, don't give up just because it may be hard or annoying. Stay confident and remember revenge is NOT for you.

Can you pray for them though?

The very ones who may be talking about you or trying to destroy your character are the same ones who still need prayer & they still need to be freed from whatever it is that's making them operate the way that they are. Often times the ones who are holding onto resentment and bitterness have a very obvious way of revealing themselves especially when someone is getting a life changing blessing or prophetic word or an elevation experience. Their flesh holds them back because they don't like the fact that the person they ran their mouths about is getting blessed or the spotlight when that very person has always been humble and has accepted correction and discipline. Now sometimes people who operate in ill willed conversations may wind up getting blessed because of God's grace and mercy but sadly they'll use that to prove their point even if they're wrong. That's actually happened to us all because none of us are perfect and none of us deserve anything from the Lord. When people can't praise God for someone else because of bitterness within their flesh, at the end of the day their just prolonging their time of moving forward. Can you pray for them though, can you pray for the very ones who try to pin people against you. Can you genuinely pray in the spirit for the very person who thinks they are in a competition with you? Keep pushing, whenever they decide to be free, you don't have to run back to being close to them but you can treat them right regardless. Before you run your mouth about them, pray for them. If someone is running their mouth about you, just pray for them and keep it moving.

As Always: Stay Blessed & Encouraged