08/14/2026
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 we overcome the “ME” in our prayers long enough to lift up a stranger as we ask for personal deliverance? While we are waiting on God, we should try spending some of that time in prayer for others who are facing trials and hardships of their own... maybe while we are waiting on God He is waiting on our intercession 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 was once a member of an intercessory prayer team, and as such I routinely prayed for others every Sunday morningand Monday night, but my two prayer partners and I continued to pray all during the week for those who called on us, and for those who we kept in continued prayer. This is a Calling that we answered, but sometimes I found that during my personal prayer time, when I was asking the Lord for deliverance from my own suffering, and for the needs of my family, I would get so focused on my own situation that I would forget to include others in my prayers. Have you experienced this as well? Do you get so inwardly focused that you neglect praying for others?
“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 would forget others, I would often receive news that someone unexpected was in prayer for me. I was so self-absorbed that I would forget that I have brothers and sisters in Christ who were on their knees while I was sleeping, or when I was busy going about my day. I can’t tell you how often someone has come up to me, and after thanking me for a prayer, or a devotional that I had written, say that they had been in prayer for me. The strength we get from such moments is incredible! It should remind 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 and Jesus is praying for us. Sometimes when we are told of another’s prayer for us we realize that our own prayers and desires haven’t been aligned close enough to God’s will, and that we need to change how we are praying about a situation in order to conform more perfectly with it.
“"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 foods, and not the best ones 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, would have been helping us… if only we had been listening for the Lord’s voice.
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 we pray for others when we are lifting up our own needs? Are we spending time in which we are waiting on the Lord to answer us praying an unselfish prayer for others? Is a secret prayer for a stranger wafting up from our prayer closet... even as we are beseeching God for the safety of our own family? Are we feeling the prayers of others, and are we ready to receive God’s will when it is revealed through them? Praying for one another... it is powerful, and righteous, indeed, but are we participating in it as we should?
“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 too. You ask us to love others as ourselves, 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 you, and to my spiritual senses as well. 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 them. 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 will be seeking 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 prayers, and then answers me in your perfect will, love, and goodness.
“Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”
Romans 8:34 ESV
“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!”
Psalm 141:2-3 ESV
Amen!
Rich Forbes