Ever since Engage devoted a week of focused prayer on the persecuted church, I have been studying and thinking about the idea of prayer. When terrorists attacked Paris, I immediately began to pray for France and its people.
After a short time, my mind began to turn to the terrorists and ISIS. As we prayed during our Praying through Persecution event, my heart broke for both the deceased innocents and the deceived terrorists. But what should I pray for? Should I pray for someone within the ranks of ISIS to have a Saul-to-Paul experience? Or should I pray that all the missiles with “From Paris with Love” inscribed on them find their mark and put an end to ISIS?
I believe the answer is yes.
Praying for repentance, salvation, and life for ISIS
I cannot speak to how I would respond to someone persecuting me for my faith. I cannot fathom how I would speak, how I would feel, or what I would do if someone threatened my life or the lives of my wife and children.
But I can tell you how Jesus responded after being brutally beaten, whipped, and humiliated. I know the words He spoke while He hung, naked on a cross, with blood pouring from open wounds. He prayed for those responsible for His pain. He asked God to forgive them. And He even explained why He asked for their forgiveness, saying, “They know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He knew they were deceived.
So is ISIS.
For that reason I pray God opens their eyes to His truth. I pray they see the deception of their beliefs. I pray God reveals Himself and Christ crucified to them. I pray the pain and suffering they are causing across the world ceases not because a bullet or bomb makes their hearts stop but because the glory of the cross makes their hearts start.
Praying for swift, final, and righteous judgment for ISIS
But even while praying for the forgiveness and salvation of members of ISIS, the reality of living in a fallen world and the existence of injustice compels me to pray for justice and the cessation of evil. To that end, I do pray for the destruction of ISIS members unwilling to turn to Christ through the effective exercise of military might. I pray that American, French, English, and other coalition soldiers in the Middle East and elsewhere fighting ISIS are successful in every campaign. I pray they shoot straight and that their bullets and missiles find their targets. I pray they have good intelligence to find the bad guys and remove them from this world.
This prayer is not only for the ending of lives. It is also for the continuation of innocent lives. ISIS is proud of the fact they are killing Yazidis, Christians, and other Muslims from a different tradition. They hold women and children as sex slaves. They are crucifying Christian men, women, and children. Ending their lives would also end their reign of terror.
So what do I pray for ISIS? I pray for its end, whether through a supernatural act of revival in the midst of evil or through the efficient use of military strength. However God chooses to end it, I pray He does so quickly. In the meantime, I will continue to kneel in the gap, lifting to the throne room of God those who have been scarred by their brutality of evildoers. I weep for those who have been harmed, those whose loved ones have been killed, and those who are still in the path of danger. And in those moments where I don’t know what to pray, I ask the Holy Spirit to hear the brokenness of my heart and take whatever I need to pray to the Father.
How do you manage the tension between praying for our enemies, and blessing those who curse Christians, and praying for justice and safety of people under the thumb of ISIS? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
