Our church kicked off a series called “40 Days of Love,” this weekend. During the entire service I couldn’t help but think of all the people that we should love….but do not want to love. Our founder, Brother Andrew, always asked the question, “Have you prayed for Osama Bin Laden today?” Most of the time I have to admit that I haven’t. Loving and praying for someone who has intentionally hurt thousands of people is not high on my prayer list. I know it sounds horrible…but I’m just being honest here…
These past couple weeks we’ve been seeing news reports of North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-Il being extremely sick, he had a stroke and hasn’t been seen in public for a couple months.
All during the service last night I kept thinking how hard it is to love someone like Kim Jong-Il. Someone who has been responsible for killing numerous innocent people, someone who has enforced unfair and unjust restrictions on the citizens of NK, and someone who has been responsible for putting terror inside each person living in this oppressed country. (North Korea remains #1 on the Open Doors World Watch list for the past 6 years!)
I was convicted with the question: should I be praying for Kim Jong-Il’s recovery? Should we be praying for his recovery ONLY if he is convicted of his sins and comes to know the Lord? We shouldn’t pray with guidelines or restrictions upon God…but it’s hard to pray for someone like this. Or is it just me?
“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Col. 3:14 (CEV)
“Most important of all, you must sincerely love each other, because love wipes away many sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 (CEV)
What do you think? Am I the only one who has trouble with this?
My theological teaching is that the North Korean guy isn’t our neighbor so much as he is the enemy by his own admission. That puts him in a different prayer context. I would pray for God’s will in his illness, but in being my enemy I would ask that the Lord change the dictator’s heart.
Believe it or not, my women’s group prayed for Saddam prior to his execution. We were hoping that his fear was the result of the Holy Spirit’s work of redemption in him. God does hear the prayers of a humble man.
We should also pray for the healing of the people who have been left behind. But, that is easier.
The biggest power in praying for our enemies is that it gives us the grace to forgive. Forgiving others heals us and we are forgiven.
A friend of mine long ago put an idea into my heart that has explained a lot to me throughout my life . . . God gives us grace to deal with the things He gives us to deal with. I think this is why we hear about people in places like NK forgiving their persecutors–not that it’s easy for them to do this–I’m sure it’s hard.
But we tend to think that it’s a lot harder for them to forgive, since they have personally suffered the wrong than it is for us, who have only heard that the wrong was committed against a brother or sister we have yet to meet. I’m not sure that’s the case. God gives grace according to our need. So we have sufficient grace to forgive Kim Jung Il, but so does the sister who has just suffered a forced abortion on returning from China and is now deathly ill from the poor sanitation and procedural technique, not to mention heartsick over losing her child (and everything and everyone else except her Lord, whom no one can take away from her).
I don’t think that the fact that God gives us the ability to forgive necessarily means we should pray for Kim’s recovery. Do we hear about the early Christians praying that God would spare Herod from the worms that ate him up from the inside when he accepted the people’s worship? They probably said in their hearts, “He deserves it,” if not for accepting worship, then certainly for murdering James, John’s brother.
Kim Jung Il deserves to die for the crimes he has committed. I’ll pray (and have prayed) for his salvation, but I’ll not pray for his recovery unless God prompts me to do so. Kim Jung Il is an old man and has lived a life of excess while his people starved. I’m not writhing in glee to hear that he’s sick, but I’m not surprised and not really saddened, either.
I’ve seen a lot of people sick, and I’ve seen better people than Kim die younger than he is. (I worked as an RN in critical care.) People die–all of us, in fact. Why would I pray that Kim would live and continue to kill and torture people? If God is ready for his life here to end, that’s okay with me. He’s going to die sometime, and he’s really not doing anything for anyone, including himself, so now is as good a time as any.
Maybe this sounds heartless, but I don’t really think it is. I don’t want to see Kim suffer in Hell for eternity, but God knows how long his life should be and whether he will ever soften his heart. I’ll just trust Him on this one.
God bless,
Cindy