This has been on my mind all week. Jesus said to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. So, I was having a conversation with Him last night asking Him how do I love and pray for my enemies? And, who IS my enemy? Truly? Who is the enemy? Well, Satan is the enemy..right? So..do you want me to pray for Satan?”
Instead, I asked Him if I could start praying for a demographic I loathe..and the very demographic that God laid on my heart one night.
I was having a conversation with Him, in my garage. This is usually where I am when I’m communicating with Him. God in my Garage. I might write a book about it lol. Anyway, I was asking Him what do you need me to do? How can I serve you Lord? And He laid ministry on my heart. I was excited! You bet! I would LOVE to minister for you! I’ve got ZERO expertise in this, but I know You’ll be leading and directing me! Yes Lord! You got it!
Only, He followed it up with a specific demographic- transgender.
Whoa. What? Me? You’re kidding right? Right?
It’s been a long journey to last night when I specifically prayed for those lost in that darkness. And..then..today..I feel different. I feel compassion..and truly want to reach out to them..walk alongside them..offer them comfort and Jesus. So..I think that’s what He meant when He said to love my enemy.
Only, the transgender human isn’t my enemy. Neither is any other human being because God loves us all and Jesus loved us..loves us still..so much that He died for us.
The real enemy is Satan. How do I pray for him? Are we to pray for him? This is confusing..so I’m throwing it out there, genuinely interested in what everyone thinks.
By no means should you pray for satan he is beyond all hope and redemption. I am 98.7% sure Jesus was referring to human enemies. I have to pray for my enemies EVERY day since I am surrounded by them. More importantly with what little i have I bless them. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. The most important thing is to walk in Love. Paul stressed Love; Peter, John,and Jesus as well. Even for ‘demographics’ you don’t like. Walk in love and you cant go wrong.
God has created His world and demonstrated His love by the act of redemption, yet, scripture is clear that Satan was and is excluded from that redemptive love. God created Lucifer good (Ezekiel 28: 12–15) but Lucifer rebelled against God and once he sinned he was cast out of heaven and became God’s enemy (Isaiah 14:12–15; Revelation 12:7–9).
God’s love is perfectly holy and can not embrace sin. Psalm 5: 4–5 says, “You are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.” That does not mean that God is petty or emotional in his hatred, it means that His holiness is completely at odds with sin and Satan is the personification of that rebellion.
Nowhere does Scripture ever say God loves Satan. The Bible does say, “God is love” (1 John 4: 8) but his love always functions within the confines of His holiness and justice. God sent grace into the world and offered redemption to fallen humanity in Christ (Romans 5: 8), but no redemption was ever extended to the fallen angels (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6) Their judgement is eternal.
God does not love Satan. God created him, judged him and is to ultimately cast him into the lake of fire for all eternity (Revelation 20:10). God’s love is for His redeemed creation, not for the one who chose to eternally oppose God.
You are correct in thinking that we do not fight against people but against spiritual evil powers (~Ephesians 6:12). Satan is the enemy; his victims are not. Christ bids us to love the captives in darkness and lead them out, never to pray for the devil. God has compassion on sinners, not on demons.
We do not pray for Satan, but we should pray for those who are not Christian, for our countries leaders, for those who percute Christian as well as those being persecuted.
I’ve always read those passages as two separate categories:
spiritual forces of evil – not objects of our prayer
people made in God’s image – always objects of our prayer
Scripture gives a very direct command to pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44), and that points toward praying for the human heart, not for the fallen angel who opposes God.
When I pray for “enemies,” I usually focus the prayer on things like:
– clarity of truth
– softened hearts
– protection from deception
– God’s will, not mine
The point isn’t to “partner” with evil, but to ask God to intervene where evil has influence.
So I’d say:
not prayer for Satan, but prayer against his work, and prayer for people caught up in it.
Thank you everyone for such gracious responses. I knew as soon as I asked to Lord “am I to pray for the evil one? He IS true enemy but Jesus stayed quiet but I sensed that He was waiting for me to say “how about I pray for those lost in transgender ideology instead?” And I did. Earnestly. An interesting thing happened the next day. I was watching funny animal stories and reels and then a reel popped up in my feed. It was a young man street preaching. There was a small group listening..about 30 to 50 ppl..and out of the crowd steps a man, dressed as a woman (they really have zero fashion sense lol) and he walked straight into the arms of the young street preacher. I replied to this that all of heaven just rejoiced. Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincide.
Again, thank you for being so gracious because I was a wee bit confused.
We are to pray for our enemies as we were praying for ourselves- all of the good things like: Love, Joy, Health and to meet all of their needs and deliver them from evil unto God….Bless them Jesus with the Peace that passes all understanding.
as far as satan goes….he is a loser, and has always been a loser - he couldn’t live for God when he was in heaven and there wasn’t a devil !! his fate has already been decided:
Revelation 20:10
Authorized (King James) Version
**10 **And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Hello and praise be to God and our savior Jesus our Lord. I just joined today even though I’ve been a follower of Christ as well as getting my daily meditations and versus in the crosswalk app! Being saved at an early age (9) the journey has been more than life changing, it’s been a affirmation and conviction of who we are in Christ! You are absolutely right what you’ve experienced through this journey of “praying for your enemies “ and His will is a true testament for all especially with your intentions that only serves God’s plan for your life. It’s in His will for us to stand in His truth the only truth which in Ephesians 6:10 again His guidance is so clear thank you Lord! Thank you for giving inspiration for my day. May the good Lord bless all in His name amen!
