Earlier this week CNN’s Chris Cuomo announced that he had tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus, and while there was an outpouring of support, there were a lot of people who appeared to be celebrating the terrible news.
Now, I definitely don’t see eye to eye with Mr. Cuomo, and have no problem writing lengthy pieces when he says something ridiculous, but wishing ill on someone is downright un-Christian. Celebrating when someone we dislike gets sick isn’t good. It’s evil. Instead, we need to pray for them.
Christ stated plainly that we are to pray for those who persecute us. I can’t think of a more perfect example of someone who “persecutes” than an anchor for CNN. Cuomo has never hidden his disdain for conservative Americans, which makes it all the more difficult to pray for his well-being, but we are called to do exactly that.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
-Matthew 5:44-48
Praying for those who persecute us, and who we perceive to be our “enemies” isn’t limited to a health crisis. Jesus doesn’t say “only pray for those people when they are sick.” It’s a command that is supposed to be done all the time. After all, how do we spread God’s love if we limit our kindness to only those who like us?
The book of Jonah tells us what God thinks when his servants only want to help those they like. After getting swallowed by a whale, and spreading the word of God to the people of Nineveh, Jonah sits on a nearby hill to watch Nineveh be destroyed by God.
God even gives the guy a little tree to give him some shade, but it gets eaten by a worm and Jonah throws a little tantrum. God gets pretty pissed at Jonah, and says:
“You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
The guy was more concerned with silly things like shade on a hill (that didn’t exist the previous day) than he was with the souls of others he knew were lost. God doesn’t want us sitting on a hill waiting for our enemies to “get what’s coming to them”. He wants us to pray for them, and witness to them.
This is hard. This is REALLY hard. THIS IS ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS YOU’LL EVER DO. It’s even harder when people who advocate for abortion proclaim to be “Christians”, but we have to pray for them.
We don’t have to agree with the things people say or do. We are never supposed to tolerate sin, but we are also called to pray for those who are lost, and sometimes those lost souls are hostile to Christianity.
Pray for our country. Pray for our world. Pray for everyone.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
John 17:20-23
Conservative Daily Update 