I’ve recently started feeling deeply convicted that I should pray for my enemies. This is a new idea to me mostly because I wasn’t previously aware that I had enemies, but I do. (Interestingly, in my case they seem to mostly be of my own making)
I know that this practice is essential to my spiritual health, and I don’t want to mess it up (I tend to have big starts followed by anti-climactic finishes). I don’t want this conviction to be a victim of my inconsistency the way others have been in the past, so I got serious and pulled out two of my favorite tools: Yojimbo and Backpack. Here’s my two step process:
Create a list of enemies to pray for. You could easily do this in a text file or on a piece of paper, but I like Yojimbo, so that’s what I used. I also like that its reasonably private (I would be embarrassed if anyone saw my list) and easy to access at any time.
Set up a daily reminder. This is big for me. Anytime I recognize something I should be doing regularly, I create a reminder for it. It’s not a cure-all, but it’s as close to one as I have. It guarantees that once a day I’ll be confronted with the truth that I need to pray for my enemies. Now, instead of just being forgetful, I’ll have to actively ignore the message to fail. Here again, you could use lots of tools to do this (iCal, Outlook, a tickler file), but I used Backpack.
I know this isn’t a fail-proof plan (I could still ignore the note, procrastinate, or get irritated and turn it off) but I’ve removed two big barriers (forgetfulness and ambiguity) from the process. I know that I’ll be reminded to pray for my enemies once a day, and I’ll have a concrete list to tell me who they are. I think it’s a concrete step towards prioritizing the stuff that really matters to me.
Do you have any hacks that help you in your devotional life? Let us know in the comments or contact us at youthhacks@gmail.com.
