Praying For Others

Evening, and morning, and at noon,
will I pray, and cry aloud: and He
shall hear my voice.
Psalm 55:17

What a wonderful privilege it is to pray for others. Someone may ask for our prayers regarding something difficult they are going through and we agree to pray. Many churches have prayer lists they pass out to the congregation on a regular basis. Emergency needs may come to our attention and we feel strongly led to pray. The above verse is my emergency prayer verse. Some urgent situations call for a real dedication to praying for whatever the need may be. There are those times we feel led to pray when we don't have much information as to why we feel led to pray for someone or something but the leading is strong.

His name is Paul. I first came to know him through both of us being our church choir. I'm an alto, he a tenor so our sections sat next to each other in our choir practice room. For a long time, I didn't even know is name until I asked another alto. He appeared to be so kind, dedicated and with a great voice. From bits and pieces of conversations, I learned that he was a single young man. During one particular rehearsal, the Holy Spirit just put on my heart to pray that the Lord would bring a young lady into Paul's life that would be a good match for him. I didn't pray for anyone in particular but felt I should leave that up to the Lord. To this day, I doubt Paul and I have passed more than 50 words between us in person. I didn't have to know Paul well, but God did and I knew He would work on Paul's behalf. God did His work as only He can do. Paul is now married to a lovely young lady (who was also in the choir) and they now have two gorgeous little girls with another baby on the way in early summer 2015. I've not had the privilege of seeing their children in person but have seen pictures. Paul is a happy man and I'm so grateful that God entrusted me, and I'm sure others, to pray for Him.

I don't relate this incident to brag on me and my prayer life. (I'm bragging on God.) So often, I have mistakenly felt that in praying for others, I needed to just pray for the big stuff in their lives. However, no matter the need, small or great, people feel that all their needs are big ones. The Lord at times has led me to pray for someone's physical condition when that person didn't even know until later that they had a problem. I have awakened in the middle of the night when someone in particular came to my mind. I prayed for them not knowing what was going on in their life at the time, but God did.

Yesterday morning, in our church, a young 19-year-old man came forward during invitation time and was sweetly saved. I have noticed him sitting on a back row with his girlfriend and her family. With me being at the piano, especially at invitation time, I don't get to be out in the congregation meeting or talking with people. He has been right within my view as I look a little to my right. I could hardly contain myself as I saw those wonderful tears of joy coming down his cheeks. Right after the service, I went to the back of the room. I told him that I know he doesn't know me nor had I met him, but that the Lord had led me to pray for him in particular over a span of weeks. I gave him a big hug, rejoicing in his new relationship with Jesus.

For many Christians, prayer may mean just saying grace at the table, praying before bedtime, bowing heads when the preacher prays or lifting those personal SOS prayers to the Lord in times of personal need. Prayer can sometimes be a “have-to” process for many Christians, but it doesn't have to be like that. Even in our prayer life, we can realize joy and a sense of satisfaction as we work in tandem with the Lord and His will for those He leads us to pray for.

I'm not always faithful to pray, even when prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so. I've also committed the terrible sin of telling someone I will pray with them about something when I haven't been faithful to carry out a resolve to do so. Folks may never know if we are faithful or not to pray, but the Lord knows our faithfulness or failures when praying for someone else.

One of the hardest ways of praying is for secret things that no one will ever know anything about. There are a couple of things I'm praying about right now. I won't discuss those things and don't even have them written down on a prayer list. They are things between me and the Lord. I know He can deal with those things better than me and my mouth can and am leaving those things with Him.

There are so many facets to our prayer lives and God calls us to be in season and out of season to pray. We don't have to know the names of some on a prayer list or who sit two pews in front of us. In our troubled times, many are counting on our prayers and God can lay folks on our hearts for His own reasons. Be it night, morning or noon, we are to be alert and on duty to pray in sometimes the oddest of circumstances. What a privilege is ours....

Dear Father, thank You for the joy of prayer, be it personal or on behalf of others. Help me to be faithful to pray and never make promises to pray if I never intend to do so. Thank You for entrusting to me the privilege of praying for others. In Jesus precious name....Amen!