Always Praying

"And I've wondered, do other Christians just walk by them? Do they see?"

THERE ARE PEOPLE who will never get prayer if we don’t pray. I had this truth spoken to me years ago after I watched a young couple and their five children under age seven be escorted out of Walmart. “No one will pray for them,” the Spirit of God said. I have prayed for them ever since. This need for prayer was placed on my heart again a couple years ago when visiting a local grocery store near my office. There are people there who will never receive prayer if I don’t do it. I have left there with a deep burden to pray on many occasions. And I’ve wondered, do other Christians just walk by them? Do they see? I was at the store again yesterday and a woman was entering with her son. He obviously had some mental deficiency, and she was limping. They won’t leave my head now. Give them peace, Jesus. Give that young man peace for her sake. For his.

Do I wish for more than that for them? Of course. I’d see him healed and made whole, but I do not know her, if she knows Jesus as Savior, if she believes Jesus will heal. That makes no difference to Jesus. He is merciful and desires to heal people. But sometimes, too much all-at-once frightens people. He does not bring fear. Ever. So, since I don’t know exactly how to pray, when my English fails, after I have spoken the Word over them, I pray in the Spirit, in my heavenly language, and Romans 8:27 promises it is the will of God for them. God will only pray through me the perfect will of God. Where sometimes, we mess up and pray out of our head and not from the Scriptures, the Spirit of God knows the thoughts and intents of those we are praying about. He knows all the facts and figures involved and can’t mess up.

“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.” (Romans 8:27)

He hears the prayers of Israel and the Jewish people. He is the God who keeps covenant, and His promise to His people is forever and infinite. They may not know Jesus as their Messiah (although some do), but they know Him as the living God of their forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He hears every word and answers their prayers. We in the Christian church need to remember our faith comes from theirs, and the instruction is to pray for their peace. To pray for the nation of Israel, for the city of Jerusalem, and, as the apostle Paul said, for the Jews. For how much greater is it to have them grafted back in? We must remember we are those joined to their root. Through them, we have the New Covenant and the history of the Old Covenant fulfilled to enable it. We focus on their disbelief in the cross, and this is important in our prayers for them, but there is mercy for them and promises God has made because of who they are. There is much which has yet to be fulfilled on their behalf.

“For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15 JUB)

We must become pray-ers. What if we prayed for those who stand against us and it changes how they think? What if they hate God and despise the gospel, but because somebody laid down their prejudices and stopped talking criticism, instead hooking into the heart of the Father, those who denied Jesus now see Him as love? There are many famous examples from modern culture. People who were lost in darkness who now adore the Savior. But looking into the Word, we have the apostle Paul who murdered Christians then became one. A man named Ananias was told to go lay hands on him, at the first, but he baulked. “Are you sure? This man was killing us.” Yet, when compelled to obey, he did obey, and the man, Paul, who despised the gospel became the leading carrier of it to those outside of the Jewish faith. Those who would never have heard of Jesus without him. And he gave of his life to the ultimate degree, eventually dying for his faith in Christ.

Our words matter. We are told to watch what we say because what we say comes from what we believe, what is in our hearts that serves as our foundation. Those words affect us personally, but they also affect who we are to others. What do we confess before the Father for those who are hurting? What do we say to Him about our enemies? What do we say that we pretend He doesn’t hear or ignore that He’s heard? What did we see when we looked in the mirror that, when we walked away, we conveniently forgot? Or do we, instead, desire a change of heart in us? We pray for the other person to change without any willingness on our own part. Maybe the enemy is you. And maybe if you prayed, you’d see it and how much our loving, gentle Savior, desires us to walk in His footsteps. Because at the root of prayer is God’s love for people, and if we truly honored that, we’d never speak harshly. We’d stay in an attitude of prayer, we’d live receptive to the voice of the Spirit, aware of Him and the words He would have us say for that one who nobody else will ever pray for.

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com