Love Your Enemies by Praying These 7 Prayers for Those Who Persecute You

To begin with, we must see people as God sees them, with love and compassion. Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:44, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Remember, we were all enemies of God at one point, and he still loved us while we were yet sinners. In loving our enemies, we live as Christ and demonstrate his love to others. When we pray for their good, we participate in God’s desire for all people to be saved. 

Loving those who persecute us doesn’t mean we approve of their actions. God loves us but doesn’t justify our sin. Our love in action towards others shows our trust in God’s ultimate justice and grace, as he constantly extends God’s grace to us. While God commands we pray, it matters our motivation—love, not simple duty. 

Yet we can’t do this alone. In our humanity, we tend to bitterness and strife. We need God to help us love those who hurt us or seek us harm. He is faithful to do so if we will ask for it. 

Heavenly Father, 

I lift up those who persecute me. Open my eyes and help me to see them through your eyes. Give me your love for them to seek their good and give them grace. Guard my heart against hatred and help me trust your eternal justice and hope.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen. 

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As God offered us mercy and forgiveness when we didn’t deserve it, we pray out of love for the same in the lives of those who persecute us. In Luke 23:34, as Jesus hung on the cross, he prayed for the soldiers who drove nails through his hands and feet. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Those soldiers also further represented a greater oppression from Rome over the Jews and other people groups across the empire. Yet Jesus asks for forgiveness and mercy on their behalf. 

Our prayers for forgiveness help us to release anger against them. Again, our forgiveness doesn’t mean we accept injustice. Instead, it allows us to be a conduit for God’s mercy, who forgave us. In praying for mercy, we remember its power. Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). We live in God’s mercies, new every morning, and his love is big enough to save even those who seek our harm. 

Heavenly Father, 

I come to you with a heavy heart, lifting up those who persecute me. They reject your name and life, and they will one day experience the consequences. I ask for your mercy to touch their minds and hearts to bring them to truth. Help me to forgive as you’ve forgiven me. Heal the hurts they cause and send them your grace. 

In Jesus’ name,

Amen. 

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Pleading for mercy on behalf of those who persecute us has a goal: their salvation. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” God wants every person to be saved, even the most sinful and despicable, at least as we might view it. Love desires the ultimate and eternal good for everyone, and a saving relationship with Christ is the greatest we can seek for anyone. 

Praying for those who persecute us, we become ambassadors of God’s grace. The greatest way to defeat an enemy is to make them a friend, or a brother or sister. As a result of the ultimate good, their salvation, they transform into our family instead of acting as enemies. God alone can change hearts, so we plead with him for their salvation. 

Jesus died for all people, for all who would believe, including those who resist him or his disciples. Praying for their salvation, we actively participate in his redemptive plan for all creation. 

Heavenly Father,

You desire all people to be saved and know the truth of you as Christ. This includes those who persecute me. I ask for you to reveal yourself to those who persecute me. Open their hearts to your love and Kingdom reality. Help me to trust in your power to redeem and save. 

In Jesus’ name,

Amen. 

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Acts records God’s intentional example of how he can change the hearts of even the most hateful persecutor. Saul had been imprisoning and executing Jesus followers, yet Christ encountered the man and transformed his heart and life. The oppressor became an evangelist, sacrificing so others could live. 

Paul’s life radically fulfills the promise in Ezekiel 36:26. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” The resistance to God and his people flows from a hard heart, unable to hear truth and love. Only God can soften that heart so they can repent and change. 

Instead of responding to persecution with anger or our own violence, we turn to God and ask him to replace their prideful heart with one of humility. God desires their transformation, more than we do, so our prayers seek God’s ability to work in ways we can’t see to lead them to conviction. 

Heavenly Father, 

I bring those who persecute me before you. I ask you to remove their heart of stone and give them a humble heart. Soften their hearts, Lord, and open them to your truth. Help me respond to love and know the right words to work alongside your Spirit in their life. 

In Jesus’ name,

Amen. 

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As a person’s heart softens, they become convicted by the Spirit. God engages them with truth, which calls them to change. If they don’t love the truth, then they may reject it as too difficult or costly. However, loving the truth leads us to accept the cost, knowing the reward is far greater. 

In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul writes, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the Gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Many reject the truth and act in opposition to God’s people because they’ve been deceived by Satan. He blinds them and keeps them from understanding and accepting the Gospel. Praying for our persecutors asks God to break through the darkness and give them light. 

Just as we love the truth enough to see those who harm us as God does, which is a difficult and uncomfortable task, God can give the same motivation to those we pray for. When people love the truth, seeking what is best over their own convenience of selfish desires, they better receive and accept it to repentance. 

Heavenly Father, 

I pray for those who persecute me and ask you to first give them a love for the truth, willing to pay the cost to believe and respond. Then open their eyes to the light of your truth. Remove the blindness caused by the Devil and fill their hearts with a desire for your salvation. 

In Jesus’ name,

Amen. 

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Salvation happens upon repentance, turning from ourselves to actively follow Christ, reconciling us to the Father through the Son by the Spirit. We receive forgiveness and a new heart. Repentance unlocks the countless and eternal blessings of salvation, and it is a gift of God. 

2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Praying for their repentance, a radical change of heart to the Father, we align with God’s heart for all people to turn from sin to him. 

Through God softening their heart and giving them ears to hear and love the message of God more than their own sin, our persecutors become convicted. Conviction differs from condemnation. Condemnation is a final, hopeless judgment. Conviction reveals the sorrowful state but gives hope through an opportunity to change. When we choose to respond unto the Father, a change of heart, we repent. We pray to this end for our persecutors because only God can give this gift. 

Heavenly Father, 

I stand in the gap for those who persecute me, praying what they would pray if they properly understood the need. I plead for their repentance, that they would recognize their sin and turn to you for forgiveness and grace. Draw them to yourself, Lord. Help me trust in your redemptive justice and to love them with your grace.

In Jesus’ name, 

Amen. 

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Repentance places us back on the path God designed for us. Works can’t save us; yet we were saved for good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-9), a mission to participate in his redemptive story. God has an eternal purpose for those who persecute us as much as he does for us. 

Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven " (Matthew 6:10). Repentance doesn’t happen in one moment. We’re called to live a life focused on the King and his Kingdom. For those who persecute us, we pray for God’s will to be accomplished in their lives, as well. 

The people who persecute us have talents. God gave them those abilities and wants to redeem them for eternal good use. Praying for their change and repentance goes beyond saving them from hell. It includes that, but salvation returns us to the Edenic purpose we lost in the Fall. God desires this full restoration for those who persecute us, making them an instrument for his glory. 

Heavenly Father, 

I intercede on behalf of those who persecute me. Let your will be done in their lives as it is in heaven. Reveal your purposes to them and guide them to your truth. Redeem their talents and gifts for your glory and Kingdom. Use every circumstance to draw them closer to you and walk with you in missional, eternal impact. 

In Jesus’ name,

Amen. 

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