A Whole Different Prayer

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” —Matthew 5:44

In the light of the cross of Jesus, we are called upon to pray for mercy for our enemies, for them to be made right with God and to be spared from His wrath.

Hassan Dehqani-Tafti was the Anglican bishop of Iran for nearly thirty years. He spent those last ten years in exile after the Iranian Revolution and an assassination attempt in 1979, which left his wife wounded. Seven months later, his twenty-four-year-old son was murdered by Iranian government agents.

In the book Prayers of the Martyrs, we read a prayer by this Anglican bishop upon the murder of his son. Here’s how he closes it:

O God, our son’s blood has multiplied the fruit of the Spirit in the soil of our souls; so when his murderers stand before [You] on the day of judgment, remember the fruit of the Spirit by which they have enriched our lives and forgive.¹

That’s a whole different prayer, isn’t it?

¹ Duane W. H. Arnold, Prayers of the Martyrs, Comp., trans., (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 108–109.