PRAY FOR OTHERS!
Why
do you pray for other people? If their prayer is fervent, and their
attitude is right, won't God hear their prayer whether you pray for
them or not? If they are NOT in a right attitude, or if they are not
concerned enough to pray for themselves, is it going to do any GOOD for
you to pray for them? Many of you are enduring a withered prayer life
because you have not yet learned why you should pray for others. Here's
how to put new life into your prayer life.
We know we are
supposed to pray for one another. The Apostle Paul repeatedly called on
the churches to pray for him and the ministers with him. Over and over
again he affirmed that he was praying for them and exhorted them to
pray for one another.
It is clear that we are expected to
intercede for others in prayer, but exactly why is not so clear. There
are some lessons we need to learn about intercessory prayer.
Abraham's Intercession
Shortly
before the birth of Isaac, Abraham sojourned for a time in a land
called Gerar. One thing always worried Abraham when he moved into a new
area — the beauty of Sarah, his wife. He feared that other men's lust
for her could put his life in danger. So he asked her to say that she
was his sister. It seemed harmless enough — she was his half-sister.
But
the king of Gerar — Abimelech — took Abraham's "sister" to be his wife,
and immediately found himself in deep trouble. (Genesis 20:1-2.)
God
appeared to Abimelech in a dream and warned him that he was as good as
dead because he had taken a married woman. Carnally, Abimelech was a
God-fearing man and pleaded that he had done it ignorantly.
God
answered: "Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy
heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore
suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his
wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt
live" (Genesis 20:6-7).
Now if Abimelech were really repentant
and prayed and asked God to forgive him, wouldn't God have forgiven him
without the prayers of Abraham?
Apparently not.
For if
Abraham had not prayed for Abimelech, all the women of his house would
have continued childless from that time (see verses 17 and 18).
But why couldn't Abimelech simply pray for himself?
The answer is given in verse 7, where God said of Abraham: "For he is a prophet."
Abimelech feared God, but he had to learn where God was working. He needed to know that Abraham was God's prophet.
Call for the Elders
Most
of us have had to learn this same lesson at one time or another. In
James 5:14, God tells us that if any of us are sick, we should call for
the elders of the Church. The elders are to come and pray over us. It
does not say that we can pray for ourselves and we will be healed.
But
some who have not understood James 5:14 may have prayed directly to God
and may have been healed. Since God can heal a person without having
them call on someone else, why does He require us to do it? The answer
Is that He wants us to learn where He is working — to recognize the
authority in His Church.
It is odd, but some Church members are
afraid to go to their minister. They fear correction, or they feel
guilty. Whatever the reason, there are brethren who would never go to a
minister with their problems unless God required them to go when they
were sick.
God, in His wisdom, has seen to it that a person with
this problem will be forced to seek the help that he so badly needs in
spite of himself. When we are sick, it is because we have sinned. We
need to be told this, and gently corrected by God's ministry. For this
reason, God insists that the ministers intercede for the members of the
Church for healing.
The first lesson we need to learn from
intercessory prayer, then, is the recognition of where God is working —
the recognition of authority.
God's Mercy
Do
you remember what happened while Moses was up on the mountain for forty
days and forty nights receiving the Ten Commandments? The people down
below began to doubt whether Moses would ever come back.
They called on Aaron to make them a golden calf and began to work themselves up into an orgiastic frenzy (Exodus 32).
When
God saw that: "The Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy
people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
themselves . . . they have made them a golden calf and have worshipped
it, and have sacrificed thereunto ... I have seen this people, and,
behold, it is a stiffnecked people: now therefore let me alone, that my
wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will
make of you a great nation" (Exodus 32:7-10).
Here was one
of the great turning points in history! God was not bluffing. He was
fully prepared at that moment to obliterate every one of those people
at the foot of the mountain and to start His plan all over again
through Moses.
What would you have done? The people were even at
that moment engaged in abominable filth. They had stripped off their
clothes, dancing stark naked around a fire. Even after having seen all
the miracles of God coming out of Egypt, they had made themselves a
golden calf and had called it God. Not only were they unrepentant, but
they were still revelling in the sin.
What would you have said
to God at this moment? How could you have prayed for these people? Does
it do any good to pray for a person who is unrepentant? Is there any
point in praying for someone who is still deeply involved in sin?
Read
what Moses said: "Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people,
which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great
power, and with a mighty hand? . . . turn from thy fierce wrath, and
repent of this evil against thy people" (Exodus 32:11-12).
Read
Moses' entire prayer. You will find that he made no reference to the
righteousness of the people. He made no reference to their repentance.
He knew they deserved nothing, but he asked God to forgive them for the
sake of God's own reputation.
The result? "And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people" (Exodus 32:14).
This
adds a new dimension to prayer. Many have wondered whether they can
pray for their unconverted husband or wife, sister or brother. After
all, they are still unrepentant. They don't deserve anything from God.
Of course they don't. But then neither do you!
The Spies Return
Take
a look at another example. The spies had returned from spying out the
land of Canaan and had reported that the cities were walled up to
heaven. They were like grasshoppers compared to the giants of that land.
The
people revolted against Moses and were ready to return to Egypt. Joshua
and Caleb stood up to plead with the people to not turn back but to
continue and to be strong in faith, but the congregation was ready to
stone them to death. (Numbers 14:10.)
Again, God intervened and
said: "How long will this people provoke me ? And how long will it be
ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?
I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will
make of you a greater nation and mightier than they" (Numbers 14:11-12).
Again,
God was ready to blot them out. And again Moses interceded. Read his
prayer in the following verses. Notice especially verse 18 where Moses
gets to the real reason why he could intercede for these rebellious,
hardheaded, stubborn, stiffnecked people: "The Lord is longsuffering,
and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no
means clearing the guilty . . . Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of
this people according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast
forgiven this people, from Egypt even until
now" (verses 18-19).
Notice again that Moses
does not mention the goodness of the people. He doesn't even say that
they are sorry for what they had done — they weren't. Only one thing
does he ask — that God would remember His own mercy.
God's reply? "I have pardoned according to thy word" (verse 20).
Nevertheless,
God decreed that all that rebellious generation would have to die off
in forty years of wilderness wanderings. He mercifully did not
obliterate them, but would allow only their children to enter the
promised land. A penalty was paid, but God's great wrath was turned
away.
Merciful God in Old Testament Too —
What
ever gave people the idea that the God of the Old Testament was harsh,
unyielding, unforgiving? They certainly didn't get it from the Bible.
Yet
many of us have gone on for months and even years after sins have been
completely forgiven by God, suffering pangs of guilt because of them.
We've left ourselves fair game for unclean spirits who put thoughts
into our minds, accusing God of being unforgiving.
If we would
spend more time in our prayers interceding for others who themselves do
not deserve to be forgiven, perhaps we would better understand God's
longsuffering and mercy toward us. Perhaps some of us would be able to
get rid of our own heavy burden of guilt and realize that God's mercy
is great enough to forgive what we've done as well.
Remember the
words of Christ as He hung suspended between heaven and earth: "Father
forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34.)
Of
course, God's mercy will sometimes involve chastisement. Notice how
David prayed for his enemies: "So persecute them with thy tempest, and
make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame; that they
may seek thy name, O Lord." (Some have not understood why David prayed
that God would chastise his enemies. Here is the answer! The purpose
was that they would come to understand and know God.) David continued:
"Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea let them be put to
shame, and perish: that men may know that thou, whose name alone is
Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth" (Psalm 83:15-18).
Put Others First
One
of the chief reasons for unanswered prayer is pure selfishness. James
expresses it this way: "You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss
that you may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3). So many of us
never get beyond the self in our prayers.
But there seems to be
a law of prayer that one person praying for another carries more weight
with God than one man praying for himself.
Look a little further
in James and see what he says in chapter 5:16: "Confess your faults one
to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." Notice
that he did not say, "Pray for yourself that you may be healed." He
said, "Pray one for another."
It seems clear enough that one man praying for another carries a little more weight than a man praying for himself.
It's
no coincidence that this same passage of scripture is the one that
says: "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the
Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name
of the Lord" (verse 14).
Think of Others
Let's
look at it another way. How often do you remember to ask God to "give
us this day our daily bread"? Chances are there are many days that pass
when it doesn't even occur to you to mention it. Why? Because you
already have your daily bread! Few of us in God's Church these days
come anywhere near doing without food.
But if this is the case with
you, you have demonstrated your selfishness. Notice the scripture does
not say, "Give me this day my daily bread." It says, "Give us .. ."
There are members of God's Church scattered around this world who do
not have enough to eat. There are some others who are Co-workers who
are in the same predicament — but they are still supporting this Work.
But many of us, in our complacency, never think about anybody else who
might be hungry. We have our daily bread and so it doesn't occur to us
to pray for someone else — maybe even in our own local church!
Christ
also said: "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against
us." Most of us would have a hard time finding anyone who has sinned
against us. For that reason, we modify our prayer at that point and
don't mention the part about somebody sinning against us. For many of
us, finding an enemy would be a difficult task indeed.
But for
others, this scripture is full of meaning. They desperately need God's
help to have a forgiving attitude because of persecution of wives,
employers, etc. We need to be interceding for our brethren who may be
tempted not to forgive.
Christ went on to say: "Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil." Day after day many members of
God's Church are wrestling with serious temptations. For some, advanced
age and other factors keep them from being severely tempted by certain
things. But in the world their brethren day and night are having to
fight horrible battles with themselves, with demons, with wicked
spirits in high places. They need intercessory prayers of other
brethren in God's Church.
Don't Be Selfish
But
one of the strangest things about this is that selfishness — coupled
with far-sightedness — should lead us to pray for others first and self
second. Recall the example of Job. Was Job healed when he prayed for
himself? Do you think Job never got around to mentioning his own
problems any time in his prayers until we get to chapter 42? No, Job
had prayed for himself time after time after time; but he had not been
healed.
The key to Job's healing lay elsewhere. Take a look at
Job 42. Beginning in verse 7, the Eternal speaks to Job's three friends
and tells them that His wrath is kindled against them because of the
things that they had said. He then told them to take an offering and to
go to Job and offer a burnt offering for themselves: "And my servant
Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept." God would not accept
these individuals. If Job had not interceded for them at this time they
would have remained cut off!
So the men did as God commanded
them and: "The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his
friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before." Job
had to pray for his friends before God healed him.
Could this explain why some of your prayers remain unanswered?
My Brother's Keeper
In
this dog-eat-dog world we become quickly conditioned to letting the
other man take care of himself. If he's negligent, malicious, or
hateful, everyone is willing to let him suffer fully the results of his
own actions.
Do we have a sense of responsibility for others or do we just not want to get involved ?
One
of the most serious examples of rebellion recorded in the Old Testament
is the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. (Numbers 16.) Having
challenged Moses' and Aaron's positions as the spiritual and civil
leaders of the people, some of these men were incinerated in front of
the Tabernacle for their presumptuousness. As for the rest, Moses told
the people that if these men were challenging God, they wouldn't die
the death of all men, but that the earth would open up her mouth and
swallow them.
As soon as Moses had finished speaking, there was
a great groaning and rumbling in the earth beneath and a roar as the
earth snapped open, and those men, their tents, and everything that
they owned disappeared into the fissure in the earth's surface. The
earth closed on them, and there was nothing left but dust in the air.
The
next day the rest of the children of Israel "murmured against Moses and
against Aaron saying: You have killed the people of the Lord" (Numbers
16:41). This was entirely too much! God spoke to Moses saying: "Get you
up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a
moment."
What would you do in a case like this? Step aside as in
the mood of the twentieth century and say, "Give it to them — they've
got it coming"? Did Moses and Aaron feel a sense of responsibility for
these people?
Sense of Urgency
Beginning
in verse 46 we see their reaction: "And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a
censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense,
and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them:
for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun." Moses
knew that if they didn't act quickly, many more thousands of people
were going to die for this rebellion.
Aaron was moved with a sense of urgency and leaped to do as Moses said. He put the incense and the coals of fire
in a censer and ran into the midst of the congregation. Speed was essential because the plague had already begun.
In
verses 48 and 49, we read: "And he stood between the dead and the
living; and the plague was stayed. Now they that died in the plague
were fourteen thousand and seven hundred . . . ."
What would
have happened if Aaron had delayed another five minutes ? In all
probability, it had only taken him five minutes from the time he was
warned that the plague had begun until he actually arrived in the midst
of the people. Nearly fifteen thousand had died in that short time and
the plague spread like a pyramid through the congregation. In the next
five minutes, thirty thousand people might have died from that plague.
If Aaron and Moses had not recognized their responsibility — had not
acted quickly and decisively — thousands more would have died. Aaron
realized that as High Priest he was responsible for the people and
leaped to action to fulfill that responsibility.
"Pray for us"
But
what about your responsibility? If a brother in the Church is sick or
in trouble, do you have any sense of responsibility for him or do you
simply close your eyes and ears?
Take a look at another lesson
in I Samuel. When the Israelites came fully to realize their sin in
rejecting God's rulership and asking for a king, the people said to
Samuel: "Pray for your servants unto the Lord your God, that we die
not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king"
(I Samuel 12:19). They could have prayed for themselves, but they
realized that they needed an intercessor. Samuel exhorted them to serve
God with all their hearts and not turn aside from following after Him.
He told them that God would not forsake His people. Samuel went on to
say: "Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord
in ceasing to pray for you" (I Samuel 12:23).
For many people, a
request for prayer is just so many words. It sounds spiritual and they
suppose they're supposed to say it, but few really do much about it.
Samuel, however, realized that he had a responsibility to respond to a
request for prayer. He realized that he was his brother's keeper after
all, and that it wouldn't do for him to step aside, refuse to get
involved and say "Pray for yourself."
We need to learn that we
have a responsibility to intercede for our brothers, our friends, our
enemies, civil rulers, and God's Work. God forbid that we should sin
against the Eternal in ceasing to fulfill
that responsibility.
God's Justice
There
is another, more sobering lesson that we must learn from intercessory
prayer. There does come a time when we are no longer able to pray for
some people. In I John 5:16, John writes: "If any man see his brother
sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him
life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do
not say that he shall pray for it."
It must be understood that
there does come a time when men have gone so far in sin and iniquity
that God will not hear our prayers for them. We've got to realize this,
talk to God about it, and be sensitive enough to recognize when God
tells us it's time to stop praying about it.
There came a time in Israel's history — a time which is to be exactly paralleled very soon now — when their sins
and
their iniquities had gone so far and they had hardened themselves so
much that God told Jeremiah: "Therefore pray not for this people,
neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to
me: for / will not hear you" (Jeremiah 7:16).
Man cannot always
walk over God's laws with impunity. If man presumes upon God's mercy,
the time will come when God will eventually not only cut him off, but
will even refuse to allow His servants to make intercession for him.
When
we have begun to learn the lessons of intercessory prayer, we will no
longer find ourselves with nothing to say after the first ten to
fifteen minutes of prayer. After we have prayed for the Work, the
brethren, God's ministers, the Co-workers, and even for some
unconverted relatives, and then dealt with our own problems, we are not
going to find we have any problem "getting in enough time" in prayer.
Can
we begin to realize how important it is to pray for others now while
there is still lime? Jesus Christ, our High Priest, sits at the right
hand of God, making intercession for us. If we are going to have the
mind of Christ, it's time for us to learn to intercede for others as
well.
by Ronald Dart The GOOD NEWS September-October, 1969 