04/26/2021
How strong, and fervently, do we intercede for others? Do we save our most sincere prayers for ourselves, and our family, while praying lesser blessings, or asking for things not quite as grand, when it comes to those around us? What about praying for our enemies; can we bring ourselves to pray God’s blessings upon them at all? Can we pray for others as sincerely as Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus?
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:14, 16, 19 ESV
What greater prayer can we pray than for God to call, love, and abide with, another just as He does us?
“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
Hebrews 12:14 ESV
When someone is hurt, or suffering our prayers for their healing come easily, our very nature is to have pity, and to show mercy to the injured or sick among us. It has always been a mystery to me how I could kill a grouse for food, and yet lift up an injured bird from my yard, and nurse it back to health by lovingly feeding and caring for it... sometimes for the rest of its life. What emotionally separates us from the one, yet causes us to love the other? Our faith, as witnessed by our prayers for one another, is much like this.
““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:12 ESV
Shepherds are the same though they tend to sheep that they consider their own, and not wild creatures. Even though they raise these animals for food, and wool, they are meant to treat them with kindness, and compassion...
““Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.”
Ezekiel 34:2-4 ESV
We rule over those around us by the nature of our prayers. We can pray healing for the sick, or keep it to ourselves. We can pray an end to drought and famine for our enemy’s fields, or limit it to our own. Every prayer that the faithful person prays has power, and their intercession carries that strength to others as each one is spoken for them. Our prayers are like the life of Jesus that was offered for us. We didn’t suffer and die on Calvary as the perfect blood offering for the world’s sin, but we received the power of His blood all the same. Our prayers carry that same power into the world just as surely as His blood carries the power of forgiveness from the very throne of God...
“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
Hebrews 10:12-14 ESV
So, who do we pray for, and will we hold back our hearts as we construct our prayers for them? Do we treat our enemies like a grouse in our sights, or the injured bird in our hand? How will we solve this mystery as we offer up our prayers? Will we ask for them all that God by His grace has given us?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the perfect, and absolute, intercession of Jesus Christ for us. Thank you for your grace which flowed from Him as He bled out His life while we were still sinners, and enemies. Thank you for calling us to Him, in response to His loving intercession. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who teaches us to pray for the world; even our enemies. We praise you Holy Father for each soul that comes to you, riding home on the back of a prayer. You are merciful Lord, and have given us a full measure of your mercy so that we might use it as we intercede in prayer for those who are lost, or crippled in their faith. Mighty are you who stands between us and those who would do us harm, and leads us in prayer for them through your Holy Spirit. Great are you who sees even the most vile, and wayward in our midst as your child who can still find his way, and come home to your waiting arms. Wash us clean Holy Father; cleanse us in the redeeming blood of Jesus, and find us worthy of eternity with you by His loving, and obedient, sacrifice. Seat us at your table and hear us rejoice at seeing not just friends and family there, but the enemies that we have called out time and again in our prayer.
Rich Forbes