Bless & pray for those who hurt me?

He cut into my lane when I was driving...so I let out a swear word or a curse! ...Her boss keeps picking on her unnecessarily and she curses him in her heart... His son is rebellious and he angrily shouts all sorts of negativity to him...
"How can you curse man whom you can see and bless God whom you cannot see, because if you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me," says Jesus.

Yes when someone hurts us, our natural tendency is to become hurt, feel misunderstood, then angry, then we pass hurtful remarks either to that person directly or behind him/her or about him/her to someone else. Finally we presume the motives behind their actions and speech and we become judgemental. This causes us to play and re-play that incident in the amphitheatre of our minds and keep the pot of anger brewing. The gulf created between us and them becomes larger and larger and it will eventually become our final grave.

The anger brewing subtly within us, will cause heart-attacks, ulcers, high blood pressure, diabetes, liver failure, kidney failure and finally cancer. Ha, ha, so you think that all these diseases are caused by eating the wrong kinds food and not exercising, eh? That's where you are wrong my friend, you are very wrong. Unforgiveness, anger, hatred, bitterness, cursing...these are the culprits which drag you to your grave before you fulfil the task God sent you to planet Earth to fulfil.

You may say yes, I have forgiven but I cannot forget what he/she has done. Yes it may be difficult to forget because we are just human beings. Some just try to brush off the wrong doings of others and try to make peace but are stung by them again and again and this makes them wary and they just try to avoid them at all cost so as not to be hurt again. Well I am no one to judge and say what one should and should not do...but Jesus tells us what we can do in Luke Chapter 6:-

Luke 6:27-33 (NLT)
27. “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. 28. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. 29. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. 30. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. 31. Do to others as you would like them to do to you. 32. “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! 33. And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!

Yes, Jesus wants us to pray for those who hurt us in order to receive abundant blessings, power and all the answers to our prayers. Now before an all loving, sinless God our good deeds are not good enough. What we consider good works according to human standards is actually filth according to God's standard, but He makes all things acceptable, pure and new through the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ. So none of us can be proud and say, "I am good !" or "I am worthy!" None of us are. If God can forgive us and accept us then who are we to hold back forgiveness from our fellow men?

Jesus is now asking us to go one step further and pray for those who hurt us. We must bless them as much as we would want God to bless us. We must bless them sincerely with all our heart. Only then we will be made new from within.

Now imagine that a silver plate has life. Someone eats from it and it becomes dirty. If that plate does not allow itself to be washed it cannot be used again. If it not only allows itself to be washed clean but also to be polished, it will begin o shine brightly. Just like that metaphor, if when we forgive we allow God to wash us of our inner filth. When we bless those who hurt us, and pray for them, we are allowing ourselves to be polished to shine brightly. That is, we will be made new from within so that we can be empowered by the Holy Spirit and be used mightily in our ministries to win souls for heaven. Just as an unwashed plate cannot be eaten from so too a person who does not have the heart of God cannot be used fully and mightily by Him. We will lack spiritual power.

Jesus came in the flesh and so He knows our every weakness. He knows that we will not be able to forget easily. That is why He asked us to pray for those who hurt us and to bless them. Prayers made for those who hurt us and blessings imparted to them will supernaturally release the Holy Spirit's special healing anointing from within us which will miraculously heal our memories and will change the other person. So shall we begin to bless and pray for those who hurt us, from this moment forth?