Praying for Others

 

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, (Ephesians 1:15–16)

The list of spiritual gifts in Romans 12 describes motivations that affect areas of interest when God’s people serve Him. In my studies of these gifts and their use in ministry, I found tests that help Christians know their most dominant gifts and how to use them. For instance, my top two are teaching and prophecy (usually called discernment). These gifts bring out the desire that people think and act biblically because they are centered on biblical principles. However, apart from the Holy Spirit, I have no ability to make that happen. For that reason, prayer is not only important but necessary.

MacArthur writes that love for other Christians is as much a mark of true faith as love for God. The above verses tell how Paul prayed for those who love and trust God. Faith affirms the person and work of Christ, and obedience affirms our love for Him. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Loving others like God loves us means wanting God’s eternal and absolute best for them. All seven motivational gifts are ways to express that love. Serving them, encouragement, providing necessities, preaching, teaching, comforting, all are expressions of love, usually in sacrificial ways. Love cost God something and it costs us our time, effort, and resources. This is the mark of truth faith that signifies the reality of who we are:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)

No matter which of the gifts are dominant motivators, prayer is vital. I can teach the words but cannot make anyone believe them or live by them. Prayer is asking God to do His work in their lives. It is also praising God for their spiritual growth and their faith.

Letting people know I am praying for them is also important. I know that from being on the receiving end as well as hearing the response of those who hear that from me.

Lord Jesus, my prayer list is long. Sometimes that alone is a deterrent to skip praying. Unanswered prayer is also discouraging, and the other responsibilities of life distract me. However, I am reading a book called “Talking with God” and today’s portion was about the importance of intercession and how God uses prayers to change lives. The need is great. What better thing can I do to occupy my mind and time than to “make mention” of Your people in my prayers! Thank You for continually reminding me and thank You for the constant ‘surprises’ along the way as You grant me the joy of seeing what You are doing in the lives of those on my list.

MacArthur’s suggestion for further study is an excellent suggestion also for the way to pray for others. He says: Read Philippians 1:9–11 and Colossians 1:9–14 and asks what requests and concerns did Paul express in his prayers? Do your prayers reflect Paul’s priorities?

PRAY: Using the above passages as guides, intercede for others as I remember them in my prayers.

 

 

A Slavery that Sets Us Free

 

Forty to fifty million people in this world are living in slavery, that is over 1 percent of the population are in slavery to other people. Somewhere around 8-10 percent of the world’s population (perhaps more) are believers in Jesus Christ. The rest are in slavery to sin. One might say a slave is a slave, yet clearly the difference is defined by the taskmaster.

Jesus said so: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34) Paul also wrote, that creation itself will one day be “set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” and that Christians are already “set free from sin and have become slaves of God . . . .”

 Slavery to sin is bondage; slavery to God is freedom. While we talk about having freedom of choice, this only applies to those set free from sin, for as a sinner I had no choice; everything I did was sinful. God says this:

But whoever has doubts (about eating food sacrificed to idols) is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

If faith is missing, so is a relationship with God and sin is bondage because it ruins my ability to know what is true and good. I’m left to do my own thing and even if it looks okay to me (or others), the “way that seems right leads to death” for the wages of sin is death and eternal separation from God.

Without faith in Christ, all actions are sinful. However, redemption changes everything. God’s gift of salvation includes the gift of faith: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

Being free from doing my own thing, there are only two choices: slavery to the will of someone else — which is human bondage OR being in slavery to the will of God — who wants the best for me and knows the best for me because He created me and loves me. The first has no appeal. The second is an amazing gift.

However, faith is needed to do what God says. I need to believe that He is right, good, loves me, and knows what He is talking about. How can I know that is true? Only if He reveals it to me. Redemption is a revealed truth. In contrast, sin blinds and separates me from truth. Sin messes with every faculty I have, no matter how good it may appear. For that reason, sin is an awful taskmaster. It leads me away from God to trusting my own judgment but my own judgment is seriously flawed. Sin can even cause me to see good as evil and evil as good.

The grand truth is this: Jesus delivers sinners. He fills us with the knowledge of His will so we can walk with Him, please Him, bear eternal fruit, increase in knowledge of God, endure in patience with joy, and give thanks to the Father who does all this because “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:9–14).

None of that belongs to sinners. We cannot be godly, and most do not want to be godly. Only Jesus can produce that desire, even in people who assume their slavery is the best way to live. Without faith, this is a lie and a trap. Only faith in Christ equals freedom, not freedom to do as I please, but freedom to choose something and Someone to rule my life other than sin.

Oh Lord, thank You for taking me out of the darkness and sin, out of the lies I kept telling myself in my efforts to make life better. Only You know what is best for me, a truth that You keep affirming and that fills me with delight in You. You rescue me from sin and from myself, from thinking I know what I’m doing by constantly reminding me how helpless and foolish I am without You. What a wonder You are!

STUDY: Romans 6-8, 1 Corinthians 4:1–5, Philippians 2:5–11