Pray for your enemies

I'm here thinking to myself about the order (that's right, the order, or better the orderS because the verbS are on the imperative tense) of Jesus that we pray for our enemies...

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; - Matthews 5:44

We have so many reasons to do what Christ commands us, though many others try to conspire against:

1. in obedience to Christ we do what He orders us, as servants that wish to well serve our Lord;
2. when we pray and love, we put our hearts in disposition to the Lord so that He changes our feelings towards our enemy. Notice that the feeling only changes (though it doesn't necessarily change) after obedience;
3. when we do what Christ commands us to do, we move our faith away from theory and into practice;
4. by doing good to our enemy, we leave revenge to God, whom it really belongs to (Romans 12:19);
5. by treating with benevolence those that mistreat or persecute us, they get embarassed and in a very awkward position (Romans 12:20, quoting Proverbs 25:21,22);
6. when we obey, we do our part, what we have to do, in trust that God will do His part, what we can't do;
7. God may do many things in response to a righteous man's prayer (James 5:16), that included (though not necessarily) changing the heart and disposition of our enemy;
8. by praying for our enemies, we recognize that we are also flawed since we are human beings, prone to make mistakes, hurt, indeed harm other people, and many times even deliberately, and this way we don't put ourselves as superiors towards nobody;
9. finally, our prayer shows not only that we are sons of God, but also it can lead the other person, who may not yet be, to experience the new birth and the adoption of the Father.

It is hard, but it's not impossible. God bless us and make us able to do what He himself has commanded us to do.