Fighting the Serpent by Praying for the Enemy

The chief and most powerful enemy of human beings is the deceiver of Adam and Eve, the serpent, our ancient foe that “seeks to work us woe.” It wants to destroy the image of God in the world. It wants to damage and destroy our bodies, our minds, our hearts and our souls.

In this way, even in Burma the Burma Army is not our biggest enemy. Our biggest enemy is the serpent, a symbol of Satan. If we forget that our biggest enemy is the serpent, we can forget that God can redeem even the worst commanders and soldiers in the dictator’s military. Many of them are caught in a web of oppression and deceit themselves. A Burma Army general is a human being.

He is not the serpent. This can help us pray for even the worst of the soldiers and commanders. We can pray that their eyes be opened to see that God hates hands that shed innocent blood. We can pray that they be released from the power of the serpent and their own bad decisions. We can pray blessing upon them, that the power of bad things in them weakens while the power of good things in them grows. We can pray that they begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

When Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for them, this is not a counsel of weakness. It is not a mystery that cannot be understood.

If we pray for someone we pray not that they become strong to do evil, but that they become strong to do good. This is just what we want for our enemies, and for the enemies of the people of Burma. We want the power of darkness in these enemies to grow weak. There is no better way to do this than to love those who hate and to pray for them. Love takes away strength from hate, and the power of prayer comes directly against the power of evil.

We can help the people of Burma by praying for the soldiers who do evil things to them. When we do this we fight against the biggest enemy of us all. When we show love and pray for enemies, we send strong weapons into battle against our ancient foe the serpent.

Jesus tells us to be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. If we do not know how to think like serpents, we may get bit by them. If we do not remember to act like doves, we may turn into serpents ourselves. When we pray strategically for the enemies of the innocent, we attack the thinking and activity of the serpent head-on. When we pray for enemies in love, we act with the purity of intention and action of the dove—the symbol of the Holy Spirit of God.