08/14/2018
In the midst of our own troubles do we think to pray for others? When we are suffering, or the enemy is knocking at our door, do we ask God for help, and then include our neighbors in that prayer as well? It is hard to think beyond our own circumstances when the situation is dire, because our true nature is a selfish one. Can you overcome the “ME” in your prayers long enough to lift up a stranger as you ask for personal deliverance? While you are waiting on God, try spending some of that time in prayer for others who are facing trials and hardship of their own... maybe while you are waiting on God He is waiting on your intercessory words for another.
“O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.”
Psalms 25:2-3 ESV
I am a member of an intercessory prayer team, and as such I routinely pray for others every Sunday morning and Monday night, but my two prayer partners and I continue to pray all during the week for those who call us, and for those who we keep in continued prayer. This is a Calling that we answer, but sometimes I find that in my personal prayer time, when I am asking the Lord for deliverance from my own suffering, and for the needs of my family, I get so focused on my situation that I forget to include others in my prayers. Do you experience this as well?
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,”
1 Timothy 2:1 ESV
Interestingly, when I forget others, I will often receive news that someone unexpected is in prayer for me. I am so self-absorbed that I forget that I have brothers and sisters in Christ who are on their knees while I am sleeping, or when I am busy going about my day. I can’t tell you how often someone comes up to me, and after thanking me for a prayer, or a devotional that I have written, say they have been in prayer for me. The strength we get from such moments is incredible! It reminds us that even during those times when we are waiting patiently (and sometimes rather impatiently) on God to move, that He is busy working on our behalf. Sometimes when we are told of another’s prayer for us we realize that our own prayers and desires haven’t been God’s, and that we need to change how we are praying about a situation in order to align ourselves more perfectly with His will.
“"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”
Matthew 5:43-44 ESV
Has this, or something similar, ever happened to you? Have you asked someone to pray for you, and as they begin to pray you realize that God has given them an entirely different view of your situation? Maybe you need a job and all you are concentrating on in your prayer closet is for the Lord to provide a good paying job right away, but as an intercessor begins to pray you hear the words “perfect job”, “righteous job”, “a workplace filled with the Holy Spirit”, “good people” or other such requests. Suddenly you are jarred into reality... you have been praying for the wrong job... not a Godly one with the right spiritual surroundings.
There are many meals presented to us in life, not just a right or wrong one, but every flavor and texture you can imagine. We can ask for spaghetti, steak, sausage, or pie, but quite often we find that we are asking God for our favorite food, and not the best one for us. Sometimes we are asking for pizza when His desire is that we eat a salad. Later we find that we were developing an ulcer, and that bland food, or roughage, has been helping us.
When another prayer warrior is led to pray for us they do not know our preferences, and their prayers are often more inclined to be driven by the Holy Spirit... have you found this to be true in your prayer life? Have you been led to pray for someone and not really known why... only that they need it? Have you prayed in secret for a neighbor or friend and seen a turnaround in their life... and incredibly... yours as well?
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Romans 8:26 ESV
So do you pray for others when you are lifting up your own needs? Are you spending the time in which you are waiting on the Lord in unselfish prayer? Is a secret prayer for a stranger wafting up from your prayer closet... even as you are beseeching God for the safety of your own family? Are you feeling the prayers of others, and are you ready to receive God’s will when it is revealed through them? Praying for one another... it’s powerful, and righteous, indeed!
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
James 5:16 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the ability to not only bring my needs before you, but the suffering and wants of others. You ask us to love others as ourselves Holy Father, and there is no higher calling, short of giving our own lives, than to pray for them. Our prayers rise like the smoke of incense before you Lord, and the mingling of many scents can be a wonderful and pleasing aroma to our spiritual senses. Let your Holy Spirit guide me in my prayers, and in my petitions for those who I don’t know well. Let your knowledge of their lives direct my thoughts, and inhabit my words as I intercede for others. Help me Merciful Father to be magnanimous in prayer, and to leave behind my selfish and self-absorbed nature. Let my love for you be manifest in my prayers for others, and in this way I seek to glorify you. You are a merciful God, full of grace and goodness... help me as I seek to reflect these characteristics in my own life. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who hears my prayer, and answers me in your perfect will, love, and goodness.
Rich Forbes