ACE #28: Be Careful What You Pray For...

"Dear Lord today, provide for my parents, fight for my friends, care for my children, humiliate my enemies & bless ME!" This is what Pastor Jamal Bryant prayed on Saturday, October 12, 2013 via his Facebook status. Gasp!

The responses included:

• Should we be asking God to humiliate our enemies?
• Please humbly bless His enemies.
• Humiliate my enemies? Um not certain about that one...I'd rather pray they have God's peace.
• You bless your enemies more than humiliate them, they need God more than us, we have Him already.
• Amen! (a bunch of those)

The word "humiliate" is defined as: make (someone) feel ashamed and foolish by injuring their dignity and self-respect, esp. publicly. Synonyms include: embarrass, mortify, humble, shame, disgrace, chagrin, discomfit, deflate, demean, squash, cause to feel small, put down, cut down to size, put someone in their place, etc.

This, by far, is not a criticism of Pastor Bryant.  He has a right to pray whatever he wants to pray - both publically and privately.  Either people agreed with this prayer or they didn't.  If they didn't, then they simply did not need to pray it. 

My concern is that as Christians, we need to be intentional about the things we pray for and ask God for in our lives. We need to be specific in our word choice.  Personally, I don't need my enemies humiliated...I need them humbled - not to me, but to the ways of God.  I cannot pray for my enemies and their humility if I am not walking in that same humility myself.  At the end of the day, whatever our enemies do to us, we are to bless them...even as difficult as it may be. That's the word of God.

Study Link:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12%3A9-21&version=NIV