Loving and praying for tailgaters

 What is the biggest risk of tailgating?
1.         Collision if the car in front of me stops quickly
2.         Damage to my car or the other person’s car
3.         Personal injury or death, or injuring or killing someone else
4.         Being held liable legally for a collision
5.         Being morally culpable
6.         Being held responsible before a holy God
7.         Nothing. There is no risk as long as I pay attention to traffic.

What if this question was on the driver’s license exam? What do you, the reader, think is the best answer?

How do I respond to  tailgaters? In the spirit of Matthew 5:44-45, I try to love them the best way I can, which is to pray for them.

•      I pray that they be saved, and come to know Yeshua Hamashiach - Jesus.

•      I pray that Ruach Hakodesh - the divine breath, the Holy Spirit - will speak to him about his need for salvation. To bring conviction

•      Concerning sin, because he does not believe in Jesus;

•      Concerning righteousness, because Jesus has gone to be with YHWH AB - the Father - and we see Him no longer;

•      Concerning Judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

•      I pray that The Father will reveal to them the glory of His holiness and love

•      I pray the Holy Spirit will be the hound of heaven, and follow the driver relentlessly.

•      I ask the Lord to bless them

One other aspect of this prayer is that the Lord impressed on me that when I talk to Him, I can do that silently, but when I am interceding for others I need to speak aloud. It may be that some day He will call me to exercise authority over lying demonic spirits, although I don’t quite see how that would work if their victim can’t hear me. But He can hear me, and there is power in that.

Spiritually, when Jesus told us to love our enemies, and to pray for those who despitefully use us, He had far more than tailgaters in mind. We can practice on them, but the real challenge is how to love those craven, evil people who are truly enemies. Jesus did not command us to have warm, fuzzy feelings for Adolph Hitler or his modern counterparts. To love is to seek the best long-term outcome for the beloved. From the eternal perspective, that means to work towards reconciling the relationship between God and man. That is what Jesus did. (Luke 23:34) This is our challenge. The Prince of Peace can only bring peace between God and man when man is willing.