…men always ought to pray and not lose heart. —Luke 18:1
“You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not
believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning
intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to
increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True
intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be
crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward
that person or circumstance. Intercession means to “fill up…[with] what is lacking
in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24), and this is precisely why
there are so few intercessors[…] Our work is to be in such close contact with
God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that
responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. […] What we must avoid in
intercession is praying for someone to be simply “patched up.” We must pray
that person completely through into contact with the very life of God. Think of
the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them!” CHAMBERS
Praying for people.
Who are you willing to pray for?
Not just the people you care about.
Not just the people you feel sorry for or compassion towards, but those
people who treat you poorly, those people you really don’t like. Jesus said, (Matthew 5:44) “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you” Ok so let’s say
you do pray for them because Jesus said to.
In a way it’s like your parents telling you to say you are sorry for
hitting your brother or sister. You say
it, after some coaxing, but you don’t mean it.
Have you ever prayed for someone but with no real expectation that God
will do anything or perhaps a hope that He won’t? You don’t have to answer that. (Luke
6:32-36) “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even
sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to
you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those
from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend
to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to
them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward
will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to
the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful,
just as your Father is merciful.”
There
is no way that you will fulfill the scripture on your own. If Jesus says do something, his command is founded
in faith not in works. He is not saying “Do
the very best you can to treat those people better.” He is saying “In your weakness, my strength
is made perfect.. You can do all things
through Me.” You cannot obey God apart
from faith and the power of the Spirit. (Zechariah 4:6) “‘Not by might nor by
power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.” So are you supposed to pray
for those people with the hope that God will answer? Yes, but your heart and
Spirit must be right, first. ELGIN
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