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Are you ever tempted to say “I told you so” when some evil thing is exposed? Do you ever think things like “It’s about time,” “I never liked them anyway,” or perhaps “Something just seemed fishy there, and now we know I was right,” or even “Thank God for getting rid of them”?

If so, and since we are all on the side of righteousness, I’d like to remind you about an instruction in Proverbs today—for if we disobey this instruction, it could ruin all that God is doing to cast down evil.

The key Scripture to remember on this topic is Proverbs 24:17-18, which says:

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him (Proverbs 24:17-18 NKJV).

It’s easy to rejoice when your enemy falls.

The mere fact that we have enemies tends to make life harder, not easier. And who doesn’t want relief from the pain and discomfort of having to deal with stress and drama all the time? It’s perfectly normal to want to be freed from our enemies, and from the attacks they unleash on us.

Talk about issues like these on The Community.

However, here’s the important thing to remember in this area:

Jesus is coming back soon. And although no man knows the day or the hour, God does—and He knows He has a limited time to conform us to the image of Christ. He also knows that time is limited for Him to dispatch us to win souls on the earth, for it is not His will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (See 2 Peter 3:9.)

And friend, it takes sweetness and love to win souls for Jesus.

Look at what Holy Spirit tells us in Romans 2:4:

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4 NKJV, emphasis mine).

It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance. Especially in this day and age, people respond best to the message of His goodness, hope, love, forgiveness, and healing. These things make people desire Jesus; and, when they glimpse His amazing goodness, they frequently bow the knee and confess Him as their Lord and Savior.

However, they don’t have the same reaction when they are made fun of, maligned, criticized, and gloated over. They don’t have the same reaction when our interactions with them are adversarial, rather than compassionate, kind, and caring. And yes, we can be good to sinners, even while still being truthful about Jesus, the Gospel, sin, and every person’s need for a Savior.

So how do you think it sounds to a lost person when Christians gloat over them? Does it sound loving when we get out our holier-than-thou attitudes and rejoice when our enemies fall? Does it sound compassionate and caring—a reflection of the goodness of God, which leads men to repentance—when we are glad that they stumble?

No. No, it does not.

Even more importantly, it is offensive to God when we gloat over our enemies.

In fact, the Bible says that it is so offensive to Him that He will actually turn away His wrath from the evildoers and stop punishing them, just to keep us—His people—from acting so badly; from acting in a way that is the very opposite of how Jesus commanded us to treat our enemies.

That gives us food for thought, doesn’t it?

So how should we respond when our enemies stumble and fall?

Well, as we discussed here in this article about why we should pray for progressives, we should obey the command of Jesus in Matthew 5:43-48. Jesus said this:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:43-48 NKJV).

What would it look like to pray for our enemies when they stumble and fall?

Here are some ideas for ways we could pray when God exposes some scandal or removes someone wicked from a place of authority:

• “Lord, You are the One who raises up kings and brings them down. You saw fit to dethrone that leader. Thank You. But, Father, please change their hearts. Make them humble and bring them to repentance. Save them, Father, in Jesus’ name.”
• “Father, I know it is heartbreaking to You to see the woundedness, perversion, and iniquity that must be in that person’s heart to even make them behave that way. Please forgive them, Abba. Forgive their sins as You forgave those who murdered Jesus, for they know not what they do.”
• “Lord God of Heaven and earth, You are shaking the nation. Please continue to vindicate the righteous, but let unrighteous deeds be exposed and dealt with according to Your will. Let Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth, and in our nation, as it is in Heaven.”

Friend, the attitude and heart motives behind those types of prayers are totally different than the “I told you so” attitude we discussed at the beginning of this article. Not only are they different, but they are more pleasing to Christ.

God’s #1 priority in our individual lives is to conform us to the image of Christ.

He will go to any lengths to do that, including allowing the wicked to stay in power if it causes us to sin with our mouths and hearts for Him to take them down. That is a scary thought to me, but it does show just how serious He is about forming the image of Christ in the U.S.

So I ask you and each of us today, including myself: Do we have a godly attitude about watching our enemies fall? Or do we gloat and say, “I told you so; it’s about time”?

If the latter, beware. But if the former is true—if we pray for our enemies with holy grief, compassion, and brokenness in our hearts—then we may see God move on our behalf in the upcoming days more than ever before.

Is Holy Spirit convicting your heart about not rejoicing when your enemy falls? If so, leave a comment below!

Jamie Rohrbaugh equips people to walk in the manifest presence of God. She is the author of Healing from Church Wounds: You Can Be Whole Again and How to Become an Intercessor: You Can Shake Heaven and Earth. She blogs for a global readership at FromHisPresence.com, where she writes about prayer, the prophetic word, living supernaturally, inner healing, and Kingdom wealth. Her writing is featured on YouVersion, Charisma Magazine, The Elijah List, Spirit Fuel, and various other ministry outlets. Download her free prayer tool, Praying the Names of God: 555 Biblical Names of God and How to Use Them in Prayer and Worship, here.