The Prayer of Revenge

Ok, you are probably looking at the title of this book and thinking, "What in the world?"  How can prayer and revenge be put into the same sentence?? How in the world can you justify such a concept? But I have to say if you have ever experienced a conflict with someone who has not sought forgiveness and remains unremorseful, this book will help you  get you to the point where you can forgive the one that hurt you and who has never sought to make it right.  I can't recommend The Prayer of Revenge: Forgiveness in the Face of Injustice enough!  This is my second time reading it through, and it has helped to come to terms with two relationships in my life where the offenders have been completely unwilling to make amends.  Both these offenders are professing Christians which makes it even harder to deal with.  But I firmly believe that we become more like Christ when we make that decision to forgive.

Prayers of revenge are called imprecatory prayers, and they actually exist in the Bible!! These are prayers (many of them are prayers of King David) in which the offended party cries out to God to bring justice on the offender.  A good portion of these types of prayers are found in the Psalms.  Here is a list of some of the chapters in Psalms that contain imprecatory prayers.  By reading some of these you will get an idea of what I am talking about...

5,6,7,10,11,17,23,25,28,31,35,40,41,54,55,58,68,70,71,73,74,79,83,94,104,109,120,129,137...and this is only a partial list!

This book encourages forgiveness regardless of the remorse of the offender.  The Bible teaches that we must forgive.  It is emotionally healthy for us to forgive.  It is the only way that we can be free from the pain that the person inflicted. It is the only way we can be free of the person who hurt us.  When we don't forgive we are giving the other person the power to hurt us over and over again. When we don't forgive we in some ways have an issue with God.  We don't believe that He will serve as judge between us and our offender.  We don't believe that God will dole out the necessary justice.  By placing our faith in God and handing that person over to God, we can let go and forgive.

"It is mine to avenge; I will repay.  In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." Deuteronomy 32:35