Who
Do You Pray For?
And
pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s
people. – Ephesians 6:18
Who did you pray for
today? You did pray, didn’t you? I certainly hope so! Prayer is not only how we
talk to God, it’s also how we listen to Him.
Maybe you’re one of
those who treat God like a vending machine. You know what I’m talking about.
You want, want, want. No matter how much you get, you want more.
Oh, you’re grateful.
Always. But it’s never enough. You’re never satisfied because you’re trying to
fill yourself up with stuff rather than with God Himself.
But I digress. Let’s
get back to prayer. How often do you pray for yourself? And how often do you
pray for others? Because if your prayers are all about you, then you’ve got a
problem. That’s something our pastor pointed out yesterday.
We are to pray for
others. We are to pray for healing and for God’s Spirit to fill them up. We are
to pray for guidance and comfort and so many things. People desperately need us
to intercede for them, just as we need others to intercede for us.
What they don’t need are
prayers for our will to be done in
their lives. We’re really good at telling God what He needs to do, aren’t we?
So, we try to “fix” others with prayer. We offer God plenty of advice He doesn’t
need on how to get people in line with how we think they should be living their
lives.
Oops!
Motives have a way of
revealing themselves when we go before God in prayer if we’ll listen to what He
is saying to us. God is good to point out our flaws, our self-interests, our
agendas. Sometimes it hurts. It’s a necessary hurt.
God knows best. He
always does. We don’t have to tell Him what we think in order to lift someone
up in prayer. We can ask for healing – knowing that the healing might happen
here on earth or it might come with Him taking the one we love home to heaven.
We have to trust Him to know what’s best. That’s hard.
A sweet friend once
said that the hardest prayer she ever prayed was asking God to do whatever was
necessary to save a family member. She understood that some people must go
through great heartache to reach a point of surrender to Christ. She understood
that her prayer might be for brokenness for someone she loved. She prayed
anyway, trusting God to know best.
How about you? Do you
trust God to handle issues without your input? Do you trust Him to wrap Himself
around those who are hurting? Do you trust Him enough to lift up someone in
prayer without telling God what to do?
We are called to pray
for others, not to know all the answers. When in doubt, pray. When someone is
hurting, pray. When the Holy Spirit brings someone to mind, pray. Just pray –
and trust God to know what’s best.
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