04/01/2023
We live in a time of reconciliation, a time when we are being called almost hourly to make intercession through prayer for those who are different from us. Whether it be a difference in righteousness, finances, race, color, nationality, or faith... interceding is of God and through it we are taught to love one another.
"Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
Hebrews 7:25 KJV
Jesus saves us; He does so despite our physical appearance or the language we speak. He specifically sent His disciples into the world and preceded that mission by breathing the Holy Spirit upon them like tongues of fire... teaching them foreign languages. So it is no surprise that we should intercede in prayer for one another... after all... though our bodies, languages, and cultures may be different; is that true of our soul? Who among us has laid eyes on the soul that is within each of us?
“And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
Romans 8:27, 34 KJV
So Jesus, the Great Intercessor, makes intercession for us regardless of who we are, and He expects us to do the same.
A lawyer tempted Jesus by asking him what he needed to do to have eternal life. Jesus turned the question around and asked him what the law said. The man then responded that it told him to love God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus then told him he was right... so do this. Then, the lawyer asked who his neighbor was and Jesus answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
A man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was robbed and beaten, being left half dead on the road. In this story a priest and a Levite both passed him by without helping, but a Samaritan stopped and lent assistance. Jesus then asks the lawyer who the neighbor was to the man lying near death on the ground... and the lawyer said it was the one who gave aid. Jesus responded... "Go, and do thou likewise."
“And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
Luke 10:37 KJV
Love thy neighbor is not a commandment to love those who are just like us in appearance and mannerisms, it is exactly as this parable teaches us. When a Samaritan (that Jews held in low esteem) helped a Jew, he was identified as that Jew's neighbor.
Oswald Chambers wrote about the danger of our hearts becoming hardened to one another and spoke of what this does to our faith…
"If once the burden and the pressure come upon us and we are not in the worshipping attitude, it will produce not only hardness toward God but despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people for whom we have no affinity, and unless we are worshipping God, the most natural thing to do is to treat them heartlessly, to give them a text like the jab of a spear, or leave them with a rapped-out counsel of God and go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to Our Lord." - Oswald Chambers
How often do we meet someone who is bitter towards the world, only to find that it isn't the world they are mad at, but something within themselves that is eating at them. We have all felt this sort of feeling when we have done something that disappoints us in ourselves, and instead of seeking to make it right, and gain forgiveness (even of ourselves), we attempt to live with it. A loss of faith in ourselves leads to a loss of faith in God. It hardens our heart. Not recognizing our neighbor is one of those inward facing spears that pierces us through and through... it keeps us from worshipping as we should and builds a wall that blocks true prayer and righteousness.
Today, as we examine ourselves, let's knock down those old walls that are hardening us towards not only others, but God as well. Let's then begin to intercede in prayer for our neighbors by asking that the Holy Spirit open their eyes to those same sinful walls within themselves. This might not happen overnight, but if we continue to make intercessory prayer for others, God will work in his own time, and their hearts will be revealed to them, and our own relationship with God will be healed.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus who makes intercession for me. I pray Father that you open the eyes of the world’s inhabitants to the bitterness within us that prevents our hearts from worshipping you fully. I ask that even as tongues of fire taught language to the disciples of Jesus, that you will teach us to hear and see each other as you see us... not as how we look physically, or the culture we live in, but as souls seeking you. Let the bitterness we have fostered for one another fall away, and the love, that allows us to pray and worship together, catch fire when exposed to your Spirit. Soften our hearts and replace hatred with harmony, racism with righteousness, proud humanity with humility, and distrust with divinity. Teach us Lord that just as we are all unique, we are also one in the spirit, and one in the reflection of our hearts as they reflect you. Then in this union of faith we can pray for one another and make intercession as Jesus does... seeing only the soul that cries out in despair for its salvation... as we are unfettered from the hardness of our own sin.
Rich Forbes