I think that I somehow do not fall into the category of one who will be hated because I follow Jesus. I am reminded today that Jesus said it and that the Psalms actually has a prayer that specifically touches on this point. Half way through the prayer there is a declaration of confidence and maybe a prophecy of sorts that the “haters” will eventually lose.
May everyone who hates Zion
be defeated and driven back.
May they all be like grass growing on the housetops,
which dries up before it can grow;
no one gathers it up
or carries it away in bundles.
No one who passes by will say,
“May the Lord bless you!
We bless you in the name of the Lord. – Psalm 129:5-8 GNT
I find myself, out of a trained practice, to bless everyone, even my enemies. I have been told that I should not be doing this and maybe this Psalm is confirming this.
Some take offence at the prayer the psalmist made against the enemies of Israel, yet there is really no basis for such offence. “It is striking in this case at least how mild these imprecations are. The psalmist is not asking that those who have harmed Israel be sent to hell, or even that they experience the same sufferings they have inflicted on others. He asks only that they and their designs might not prosper.” – Boice
Isaiah has a consuming prayer from a different perspective.
Why don’t you tear the sky open and come down? The mountains would see you and shake with fear. They would tremble like water boiling over a hot fire. Come and reveal your power to your enemies, and make the nations tremble at your presence! – Isaiah 64:1-2 GNT
He seemed to know that it would require the tearing of the sky for God to fulfill His plan for the world. I think the good news is that God actually answered this prayer through Jesus. He has destroyed the barrier between heaven and earth. Today, God has given me access to all of His riches and ressources and I am invited to take them, by faith, through prayer.
“People are merely “amusing themselves” by asking for the patience which a famine or a persecution would call for if, in the meantime, the weather and every other inconvenience sets them grumbling. One must learn to walk before one can run. So here. We – or at least I – shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, no have “tasted and seen.” Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are “patches of Godlight” in the woods of our experience.” – Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
The Practice of Prayer 