{"id":53695,"date":"2021-04-10T16:38:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T13:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wingulamashahidi.org\/?p=53695"},"modified":"2025-07-28T15:06:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:06:35","slug":"understand-gods-perfect-will-for-your-enemies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wingulamashahidi.org\/en\/2021\/04\/10\/understand-gods-perfect-will-for-your-enemies\/","title":{"rendered":"Understand God\u2019s Perfect Will for Your Enemies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/h2>\n

No matter how much people offend you or how many enemies you have, God will never hate them the way you do.
The way you see them is different from the way God sees them. You may wish for their destruction, but God desires their salvation. You may long for calamity to befall them, yet the Lord wishes they would repent and avoid disaster.<\/p>\n

When you truly understand God\u2019s nature, you will stop wasting time wishing evil on your enemies. Instead, you will pray that the Lord grants them the grace to repent so that their harm will not reach you.<\/p>\n

If you pray for God to kill your enemies, you are wasting your time. God knew they would become your enemies before they were even born, and He created them anyway. If He were as angry with them as you are, He would have destroyed them long ago\u2014or not created them at all.
Their very existence means they are part of God\u2019s sovereign plan, and He created them because He loves them (John 3:16).<\/p>\n

Why God Desires Repentance, Not Destruction<\/h3>\n

These are hard words, but they are true. If you hate someone for gossiping about you and wish God would kill them, your prayer will not prevail. Instead, pray that God grants them a heart of repentance\u2014that aligns with His will.<\/p>\n

When someone does evil to you and you pray for their death, remember Ezekiel 18:23:
\u201cDo I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And 2 Peter 3:9 affirms:
\u201cHe is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Even when someone has stolen your most valuable possession, the prayer that pleases God is:
\u201cFather, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing\u201d<\/em> (Luke 23:34).<\/p>\n

When someone seeks your harm through witchcraft, you might quote Exodus 22:18\u2014\u201cYou shall not permit a sorceress to live\u201d<\/em>\u2014and pray for their death. But consider: do you also apply Deuteronomy 22:22, which commands the stoning of adulterers, when you catch someone in adultery?<\/p>\n

The same God who spoke one command also spoke the other. Why apply one verse and ignore the other?<\/p>\n

The New Covenant Perspective<\/h3>\n

We must understand that God\u2019s dealings under the Old Covenant differ from His dealings under the New Covenant.
In the Old Testament, because of the hardness of human hearts, the Israelites were permitted to execute adulterers, idolaters, witches, and blasphemers, and to exclude lepers.
But this was not God\u2019s ultimate plan.<\/p>\n

The fullness of God\u2019s will was revealed in Jesus Christ, who said:<\/p>\n