Should I pray for God to bless my son’s killer?
In 2017, a single bullet shot by Tyrone McDuffie killed my son. How should I feel toward this man who took my cherished one and only biological child from this world? Should I hate him or pray for God to bless him?
1 John 3:15 says, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
That means, as a Christian, if I hate my son’s murderer, God views my sin as murder too.
Hate and murder are in the same sin category. Jesus taught in the New Testament that we are to love our enemies. But how do you love someone who killed your child? First, choose to pray for God to bless them.
What will happen when you pray for your enemies?
God will show you your true self. He will bring attention to all the things that are wrong in your heart. Then, you will need to correct these.
The first step will be forgiving your enemies for whatever you feel they did wrong so that your anger towards them will shift. You may find my story interesting: Could You Forgive the Man Who Murdered Your Son?
Prayer is powerful.
Continue to pray for your enemies, and God will work in your heart and open a door for them to need you so that you can help them. And when you do, both of you will change. You will see changes in them because God will use your prayers to work in their heart, and then you can follow through and love them as God requires, just like I did with my son’s murderer.
Jesus did not return evil for evil.
1 Peter 3:8–9 says, “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
Should I pray for God to bless my son’s killer?
Jesus doesn’t want me to defend myself by trying to get vengeance. Instead, I’m to pray for God to bless Tyrone. And I have been praying for him. In fact, I’ve been to the prison to visit him and will continue to do so even though he murdered my only child in cold blood.
My heart has softened, and I’ve come to love my son’s murderer. But this blog would be too long for me to explain how that came to happen. Check out my memoirs if you want to know more about my story. Here’s the series link. I’ve written three books and will continue to write until God calls me home.
How many enemies do you need to pray for?
