Is it a waste to pray against your true feelings?

I know we are supposed to pray for our enemies and wish good upon them. And I do that. But I sometimes wonder, is it a waste of time because the Lord knows my heart. And in my heart I genuinely dont want good things for that person who steals my car. I want him to crash in that stolen vehicle.

So my question is: should I still pray for that person? This is a hypothetical btw, no one has stolen my car, just making an example.

I have been praying for evil people because the Bible tells me to do so, and as for my genuine feelings, I always put that up as "flesh vs the spirit", my flesh is fighting the spirit. But am I just praying for no reason if I genuinely dont feel love towards that person?

What do you guys say?

Even if your heart goes against it I think God knows your intention and and takes that into account.

Just because you think you want the person to get in a crash does not mean you want that.

You cannot help the thought which would be like a temptation which we will be tempted but not want it.

Temptation is not sin.

You will know if it is only a thought or you really want it.

If you really want the person to crash there is no reason to pray for the person for you do not want good for the person and it is sin.

All it would be is an anger and revenge issue motivated by hating someone to get over on you and offend you.

Probably mostly they cannot stand someone getting over on them like who do you think you are.

A lot of people are like that and common place among people and probably happens a lot among Christians which is usually temporarily where the world will not let it go.

Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

It is alright to be angry but do not sin because of it.

It is hard being a Christian in this sense with turn the other cheek, do not resist evil physically.

For it is hard to take it without wanting to retaliate and hating you have to take it while your mind says whip his butt or verbally going against them or something bad happening to them.

Many Christians will fail but they will have to repent of it.

When the Bible tells us to pray for our enemies, I do not think that it necessarily means to "wish good upon them" in any physical-world practical sense - i.e. 'worldly success'; rather, I think it is more inclined toward the idea of the Lord's will being accomplished in the heart and mind of a person.

Assume for a moment that all of your enemies are lost people. What they need more than anything is Christ.

So - pray for their salvation - pray for their eyes to be opened so that they may see the error of their ways.

Pray for these kinds/types of things - which are more spiritual in nature - rather than physical things.

If the intent of your prayers do not match your heart, are you not being 'fake' or 'false'?

So then - when it comes to praying for your enemies - pray for the things that you do actually want for them according to the will of God.

And, the other thing...

God wants us to love all people - including our enemies - and not hate anyone.

What should be in our heart is love and kindness toward all people.

This is the goal.

And, there are several reasons for it:

1) gives us peace within
2) better enables us to be a good witness
3) shows others the love of God through us

- just to name a few.

So - I am thinking that each of us will/would probably do well to pray for our enemies according to what is 'true' in our hearts - and - whatever is not 'true' in our hearts - "pluck it out" and replace it with something that is...

I believe that your thoughts on this are right on target. I never thought of it (pray for enemies) that way. Profound really.

The person who does evil against us is worse off than we are because he or she is in bondage to sin. Praying for God to release that person from the bondage of sin is a good prayer and it may help us to remember all the things we do or have done for which we have been forgiven.
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God knows what you really feel, and He sees the hypocrisy when we "secretly" want evil to befall our "enemies" while we pray for them. It's better to be brutally honest with the Lord about your feelings and, instead of hyprocrisy or not praying, rather invite the Lord into those hard feelings you have. Ask Him to help you forgive and for His heart for the people who hurt you.

This thread can go in a number of directions.
I will keep it simple, because most complex topics are combinations of simple things.

We got to start by realizing that most Christians have never thought this through with the Lord's help and searching His Word for answers.
Many will provide isolated verses to support the teaching they have received and feel comfortable with.
Some have a teaching that doesn't necessarily match their expectations of others or self.
First off, I have limited time, so do you need help or are you curious, or want to teach this topic? This forum is mainly teaching, discussion and debate. That's why I want to know up front. If you have recently had a serious trauma in your life, then I will try to share what has been helping me through my series of traumas even though it is triggering and can cost me a day and night of sleep.

I agree that we should love our enemies as we are commanded.
However, that's not an unconditional command to love every person.

Did you know that God got really angry with someone who was one of the best kings in recorded history for not hating God's enemy?

This sounds strange to many, but God does hate some people.
Are we holier than Him?
Jesus expresses hatred more than anyone else I know.

When our desire is other than to do the will of God, we possess an unholy desire. You have learned that your heart is not in communion with God's heart. It is always a grace of God to reveal to us the sin that remains in us that we may ask His help to be otherwise. So ask God to change your heart so you do desire to love as He loves.

Being tempted is not sin, but tempting someone is evil.

Praying to God that you forgive someone, and asking that Jesus also forgive that person, helps you forgive them. This helps you make change for righteous standing with God.

Do not give place for the devil.

God said, that vengeance is he's, he shall repay.

If the person is converted and saved, they are no longer an enemy, but now a brother. And that brother should be helping to build up the church.

Tell me what you know friend. Im not here to teach on this topic I was just asking a question.

I think so too. God knows, so no need to play pretend.

I like all the comments you guys have said. One thing that seems to help me is what @reneweddaybyday said, the people who go against us are worse off than us. Thats deep. It may look like they get a "one up" on us, but in reality they are only hurting themselves.

Great way to look at it.

Ive been praying about this a lot and I believe the answer I have gotten is: This situation has come to my attention to show my self-righteousness and wrong idea of it.

If you guys have better memory than I do, you know I have essentially always said that you can "just dont do it" when it comes to sin. But now I realize sin is more than just stealing or commiting adultery or murder. Those sins are easy to not do, and are just willful violating of God's commandments and those ones the Bible does teach that God always provides a way out (1 Cor 10:13), but the sins of the heart are a bit more difficult to root out. Thats why the Bible says whoever hates his brother is a murderer and has no eternal life in him, luckily I dont hate my brother, but I can easily see how that can happen. If you have a Christian brother (or sister) violate you in some way, you say you forgive them and in your heart that root of bitterness springs up. You try to think nice thoughts of them and in reality you wish they would drop dead.

Sadly no amount of "Just dont do it" will help.

O help me God.

That's ok either way.
I just asked because a series of major traumatic experiences the past two years would have killed me if not for God's grace. I just want to help others, which helps me too because it gets the focus off of myself. I have to be wise though because it can be triggering too and have to relive the same, sometimes worse traumas emotionally then even the time of the actual experience.

I can't go into it now, because I need to get back to sleep and work hard today. There is a difference between those who are merely personal enemies and the enemies of God.
Another distinction is between someone who has wronged us and someone who is a reprobate. A reprobate is a certain category of people the Bible describes.
Romans chapter one devotes the most details about them in one passage. They have many similar character traits.

I did a lot of research on this topic motivated by the following:

1. Demonic attacks upon me through people and situations.
2. Interaction with both personal enemies who simply wronged and those who were clearly reprobates and psychopaths.

My most recent job was a Personal Protection Specialist.
Someone's life was in jeopardy.
They disregarded my repeated warnings and reasons for my discernment. I had to just pray fervently for God to protect them when they were on their own AND reveal the person's intentions.
She was about to be eliminated as the person I warned them of explained to them alone in a car on the way to his place. He admitted 3 times to her of the psychopathy at work. God sent her brother to his house at that exact time necessary to take her home. This was a supernatural deliverance from certain death.

This is just one example why this topic is so very important.
People act foolishly .
Christians act foolishly on a regular basis.
I admit to being foolish as well.
I've seen long time friends and families broken and at enmity, separated and divorced over the lack of working on personal character and basic conflict skills.
Next thing I've seen are some of those same foolish people who refused reconciling and trusting people who love them, jump into the arms of psycho/ reprobates. They are blinded and cause their children harm by association with such people.
Then I've been told that you got to love and be kind when they torture and commit the most heinous crimes against your own family.
This type of teaching is a misapplication of verses without looking at the overall teaching on this subject of the Bible.
These people choose to remain foolish because they make absolutely no distinction between the daily/ weekly offenses and the things which God and we should truly hate. I've lost more friends from this issue than many issues.
The devil's like that too.
They are the authors of confusion and sow discord that is unnecessary.

Ask Him to change your heart. This is a good thing for everyone to pray on a regular basis.

whats the difference?? arent our enemies also enemies of God? saul saul why do you persecute me (Jesus said this to him)

This is where we need the help of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:26). He helps us pray when we don't know what or how. I had an illness that put me in hospital for 8 days. For the first few days, I could hardly think, let alone pray. God was still able to show me things that helped me through the ordeal. By the way, love is not a feeling. It's something we choose to do and an attitude we choose to have. We have God's love in our hearts because He puts it there. We choose to live out of that or not.

We will not be able to love until we have forgiven. Unforgiveness means that we demand payment for a debt we believe that we are owed. God says that no debt owed to us compares to the debt that we owe God. As He has forgiven us, so we must forgive others. If you need to know how to forgive, I can help there.

we are to pray with a clean, joyful, willing heart, mind, body, soul, conscious & spirit. not to be contrite at all. cast the devil out of your thinking & your will. he knows all of our weaknesses & is ready, willing & able to attack 24 hours a day. perhaps kneeling will install more meaning & joy into your praying. James 5:8- "humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord & He shall lift you up'.