Praying For Others
“I thank my God,
making mention of thee always in my prayers, Hearing of thy love and faith,
which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; That the
communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every
good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and
consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by
thee, brother.” (Philemon 1:4-7)
Today’s Morsel: Paul was not only a
great apostle, evangelist, teacher, and leader, but he was also a great man of
prayer. Prayer was important to Paul, as well as to the other apostles. They
had gleaned from Jesus the importance of prayer. I find it hard when people say
that they are Christians and yet they do not pray. One cannot be an effective
Christian witness and deliver an effective message of the gospel without
prayer. We find that when Paul was called by the Lord to go into Macedonia,
when they arrived, scripture says: “And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of
Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days. And on
the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to
be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.” (Acts 16:12-13) We should never just avoid prayer and times of gathering
for prayer. It’s so vital to our survival. Paul told Philemon that he was
thankful to God for him, making mention of him always in his prayers. One of
the couples that live down the street from me, whom I had only met once, were
passing by my house a few days ago and when they saw me, they stopped to
talk. When I called them by their names, (they had told me the first time
we met) they were surprised that I still knew their names. The lady asked me
how did I remember their names? I told her because I pray for you daily. Do you
pray for your neighbors? What about saints in your church and those whom you
haven’t seen in a while? What about your government officials, and leaders of
our nation? “Wherefore I
also,
(Paul said) after I heard of your faith in the
Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you,
making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:15-17) Let’s keep others before the throne of
grace. Someone else may be doing the same for you.
Sing: Hear my cry, oh God, attend unto my
prayer, from the ends of the earth will I cry unto You; And when my heart is
overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, so much higher than I.
Thought For Today: Prayer only works if
you do it.
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