Praying For Others

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, September 5th. So many people are in crisis, but how do you know what to pray for them? Get clarity on discerning the real needs of people as we learn how to talk with God. Now all of us have prayed for other people, and all of us have had the experience at times of praying for other people and expecting something to happen and nothing happened. And we've asked, well, did I read the Scriptures right? Do I understand prayer? Was God listening?

And all the questions that we went through. But I want to share with you this morning some principles that I feel are very essential if you and I are going to pray for someone else and pray effectively and see either God meet their need or change their life or whatever the situation might be. But I want us to look first of all here at the people that Paul says, we ought to pray for. And Paul writes to Timothy by saying, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men.

Now that's sort of like, Lord, just bless everybody. But then he gives us a category here and then I want to expand upon that category so that you and I may see that we do have a definite responsibility to pray for different types of categories of people. So he says, first of all, in verse two, for kings and for all that are in authority.

And in our day and time, that would be for presidents, for dictators, for emperors or whoever they may be. And he says that we are to pray in their behalf. He speaks of supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving, all of which means to note their needs and to intercede in their behalf, to make petition for them and then to give thanksgiving to God. Now we need to pray that every man who runs for office will have a fear for God, will have a reverence for God, will acknowledge that God is sovereign, that God is supreme, and that every man needs to bow his head in his heart before Almighty God and acknowledge that God is God and he needs to do it, not only in privately but publicly, that the whole world may know that he has a reverence for God. Now that's exactly what Paul is saying here. He says he exhorts us, and that word here means I encourage you strongly, Paul says, to pray for these men in authority over you.

But that's just one category because there's some other categories. For example, he says in Ephesians, turn there if you will for a moment, and let's look at a few other categories of people for whom we need to pray. In Ephesians chapter 6, and if you'll recall, this is where Paul is telling us what the armor of the believer is, he says in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. We need to pray for the whole body of Christ, that is the church.

You say, well, how are you going to pray for the church? Because we can divide the church up today, and not by denominations but by need. There is the part of the body of Christ today that is under great persecution. There is the part of the body of Christ today that is very lukewarm. There is the part of the body of Christ today that is very cold. There is the part of the body of Christ today that has set aside the word of God, and they have turned away from the teaching of the word of God and they aren't just cold, they have begun to doubt the authenticity of the word of God. There's a part of the body of Christ today that's in material need.

The body of Christ is different in every locality, and every single church has its own personality, and the people are different. But you see, he says we are to pray for all the saints, Colossians chapter 1, Philippians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1. In all of these first chapters of these books, Paul continually reminds us to pray for the body of Christ. So we have a responsibility to pray for the church. There's a third category, and stay right here in Ephesians if you will, but which we need to pray. That is, we need to pray for God's servants, pastors and teachers and preachers and missionaries.

Listen to what he says now. In verse 18 he says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, pray for the body of Christ. Verse 19, and for me, Paul says, and I could wish every preacher had somebody to get up before daylight every morning praying that God would do what?

Teach him what to say, give him the boldness to say it, make the message clear, meet his own personal needs, deepen his life, keep his focus upon God. I could spend the rest of the message telling you how to pray for preachers. And one of the problems with this nation is that people criticize their pastors, and they're always looking for something to shoot at, but they never take time to ask God, how shall I pray for this man? Listen, you and I need to start praying for one another.

And that's what we're talking about. So also praying for pastors. Then he says, we ought to pray for laborers, the people who are yet to be called. For example, in the ninth chapter of Matthew, he tells us in that last verse, he says, pray ye therefore, in verse 38, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers unto his harvest. We need to pray for the people who are yet to be called, people to preach the gospel, teach the Word of God, people to sing, people to take place of leadership, people who work in the nursery.

He says, oh, now you don't pray about that, listen. He says we're to pray for God to send forth the laborers. We have a responsibility for praying for God to speak to people, for people to listen to God speak to them who've never even thought about serving the Lord. Then the scripture says, we likewise ought to pray for the lost. Now if the average person picked up the Bible, back to 1 Timothy, if the average person picked up the Bible and said, now where does it say pray for the lost? Well, I would have to say to you that the vast majority of times in the Bible, the Bible is always admonishing us to pray for the saints, not the lost.

But God does want us to pray for the lost because listen to how he couches his admonition to pray here in 1 Timothy chapter 2. He says he's exhorting us or strongly encouraging us to pray for all men. Then he names kings and so forth.

And listen to what he says. He says when we pray for these people, something's going to happen. And then he departs in verse 4, speaking of Christ, and he says, who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? Now why would he spend verse 4, 5, and 6 talking about God's willingness to save men, Christ dying on the cross not to save us, if he did not intend for us to pray for lost people? He does want us to pray for lost people. He says it's not my will that men should perish. He said who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? He said I want you to pray for all men.

I want you to start with those in authority over you. He says I want you to pray until the last sinner has been saved. We're to pray for God to deal with the hearts of these people. Then if you'll turn to Matthew chapter 5, and this is where the rubber hits the road and sometimes it makes some real rubber marks on the road at this point, because I want you to notice the last category that I want to mention here, verse 44 of chapter 5 of the Sermon on the Mount. One of the group of people that we need to pray for, and I'm sure there are others, but he says verse 44, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully, resentfully, bitterly criticize you, and do what?

And persecute you. He says we're to pray for them. And you see, it's very difficult for us to pray for people that we don't like, or people who don't like us maybe, or people who persecute us. But I want you to go back to 1 Timothy for a moment and notice something here. What he says about kings or presidents and people in places of authority is also true among our enemies, in the home, in the school, in our society, in your office, or wherever it may be, whether it's your enemies, your friends, your loved ones.

Listen to what he says. He says in verse 2, we're to pray for these people in order that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Now wouldn't you agree that isn't only true in those in places of authority, that's true the person who works in your office with you, and you have a little something between the two of you. You begin to pray for that person, what happens? God begins to work on you.

You say, oh, that's not it. I'm praying for that person. God says, yes, but I'm starting with you. You say, but Lord, that's where the need is, God says, yes, I see that. And so he begins to work on you and then before long, what? The gap between you and that person is changed and what was the gap between you have brought the two of you together and then what are you doing?

You are able to relate to that person and when you see that person or you interrelate to them, there is a sense of quietness and peaceableness and oneness, why? You began to pray, God began to work on you, then he began to work on the other person and what is true of the government is true in the home, in the office, in the school. God closes the gap through prayer and peaceableness and quietness and godliness and reverence and respect for one another is the end result. Well, what are the principles? If you'll jot these down, if you will, and let me just give you about six principles that I feel are very essential, absolutely essential if you're praying for someone else is going to make any real decided difference at all. We say, Lord, just bless everybody.

How would he answer that? The first principle, let me put it this way so you can follow me. If my prayers for others are going to be effective, my prayers must come from a heart of love and compassion for the people I'm praying for. And I'll tell you what I told you before, when I have a problem with somebody else, the Lord's already taught me this.

I have to learn it over and over and over again, but I think I'm making some progress and that is I have to start with me and God has to give me a sense of love and compassion for the other person because it may be that they don't know any better than I do. So first of all, if my prayers for other people are going to be effective, they've got to start with the heart of love and compassion. Secondly, if my prayers are going to be effective for someone else, I've got to recognize that my prayer is the link between their need and God's inexhaustible resource. How do I help that person get God's inexhaustible resource into their life to meet their need? If I'm willing to pray for that person and to bring their name and their need before the Lord God Almighty, my prayer is the link because as I begin to speak to God about their need, then what does God do? He goes down to meet their needs so that you and I must recognize if our prayers are going to be effective, that our prayer is the link between Almighty God and his resources and that person's need, whether it's an emotional need, a physical need, a material need, a financial need, whatever it might be. And we have to see that we're not just praying disconnected to the whole idea.

As we've said before, it's like a triangle. Here's God, here's the need, and here you are. God sees their need.

He burdens your heart. You pray for them. God answers your prayer and meets their need. The local family, the small family, and the whole body of Christ is to work in that way. So if you and I are going to pray effectively, we've got to see that we're the link. The third thing, if my prayers for someone else is really going to be effective, I've got to be able to identify with their need.

That is, I've got to be able to get a grasp on what their need is and feel what they feel. Do you recall when Jesus was watching the multitudes, he says he looked upon them and had compassion for them, and you recall he says that he was tempted and tried in all points such as his we, so that Jesus Christ, when he came to earth, literally this is what happened, God the Father, seeing the need of mankind, came in the form of Jesus Christ, and he got under the burden with all of us, and he lifted that burden, and when you and I talk to the Lord Jesus Christ, he can identify with it. He knew all about temptations. He all knew all about trials. He says he was tempted in every point such as his we.

So then what did he do? He came in order to be able to reach down into your life and my life and say, I understand. I've been there, and you see, not in every single instance of circumstance, but in circumstances that are so alike what you and I go through, there isn't anything that we face that he has not faced more intensely because he was perfect. More intensely because he was perfect, Satan worked on him. He's experienced every temptation, every heartache, every burden that we'll ever be able to face in one form or the other.

So he could identify with us. That's why we say, Lord, I know you understand. If he had not come to earth, if he had never been tempted and tried like we would say, Lord, now I know you don't understand it, but this is the way I feel. You won't pour your heart out to somebody who doesn't understand. So if we're going to pray for others, we've got to ask the Lord to help us to see what they're feeling and feel what they're feeling and understand the hurts and feel the hurts. We've got to get up under the burden with that person until we're able to feel a little bit of what they're feeling.

Then my friend, it isn't just Lord bless so and so and so and so. Then we begin to pray, Oh God, lift that burden off their heart, meet their need. You know what motivates us to pray with earnestness?

Because we feel the hurt that somebody else feels and until you feel the hurt, you'll never be able to pray effectively unless it's praying for joy or something else you want in someone else's life. Number four, for my prayers for someone else to be effective, I must always desire their highest good. I must always desire their highest good.

Let me give an example. Here's a gal and a fellow who are dating and this fellow says, Lord, I want the best for her. I love her. God, with all of my heart, I want the highest good for her life. God says, find on her to marry somebody else.

Well, only married people can laugh at that. Let me tell you something. When you say, Lord, I want what's best for the other person, then you can't say, Lord, I want what's best for them but. When you're praying for someone else, you have to take your hands off the batter and let God deal with it any way he wants to and it may not come out the way you want it. But see, I can't pray for someone else honestly, sincerely with all of my heart and have God hear and answer my prayer unless I'm willing to say, Lord, I'm going to take my hands off the whole matter. If I say, God, I want you to answer my prayer and I've got a tight grip on it because I'm not going to let him do but just so much. God says, if I'm going to answer your prayer, you've got to trust me to do with it exactly what I want to do and get yourself totally out of the picture except to pray. And sometimes that's very difficult for parents to do that in praying for their children.

The next thing, the fifth thing is this. Listen, if I'm going to pray for someone else effectively, I must be willing to be part of the answer if God chooses to make it so. I must be willing to be part of the answer if you're praying for someone else and you're not willing to be part of the answer, you're not willing to cooperate with God and helping meet that person's need, then I'm going to tell you God's not answering your prayer because it is the prayer of hypocrisy. Listen, it is the prayer of separation. It's the prayer of isolation. Listen to this. You're saying, God, here's a tremendous need in this family over here but count me out.

You take care of that. Can you imagine Jesus Christ doing that? Did he say to blind Bartimaeus, somebody heal that fellow, I don't want to get my hands dirty.

No, he didn't say that. He didn't say to the leper, somebody else touch him, I don't want to get my pure holy hands dirty with somebody's leper stinking body. The reason God does not answer most of our prayers we pray for other people is because we're not willing to get involved. Because what you're saying is, God, I'm lifting a cheap prayer.

It's not going to cost me anything. The last principle, very essential, the one that trips us up, if we're going to pray for someone else effectively, we must be willing to persevere. That is, we must be willing to hang in there and keep on praying. Now, you know, all of us have been prayed through all kinds of stuff and you know the wonderful thing is you don't know who's been praying for you. I'll bet you, if I should ask you, how many of you have a Christian mother, and you raise your hand, so how many of you think your mother's been praying for you? You just know that your mom's prayed for you, but you don't know who else has been praying for you.

And the one, just think about this, let's say, for example, here's a fellow, a woman in need, and they have a tremendous need in here. Here are five committed believers who are willing to say, God, count on me, whatever it costs me, Lord, you can use me any way you want to, here I am, I'm here to tell you, you've not prayed with anybody until somebody tells you and tells God, Lord, you just push that over me, whatever it takes, God, use me to be a blessing to this fellow. You talking about binding the body of Christ together, brother, that'd be better than the most powerful glue man could ever create.

Because you know what happens? God's meshing spirits together. And when you have been on your knees with somebody else and you've prayed them through something, friend, that's what you are for a lifetime. That's real, genuine friendship glue.

It never comes apart at the scene. But how many times you and I pray, somebody shares a need and says, will you pray for me? I sure will. And that night you ask the Lord, and please bless so and so, you know they have a need, Father, and I just want to ask you to do that in Jesus' name. Amen.

The next day, that's the end of that. And then there someday you may say, did you pray, oh yeah, I prayed for you. I want to challenge you to do one thing. Ask God to show you three people for whom you need to pray. Three people that have a burden. Three people that have a heartache. Three people that you know really need a change, whatever it may be, or need something or experience, whatever it might be. Ask God to give you three. Three people that you're willing to be a part of the answer.

Three people that you're willing to get under their burden. And tell God that you want him to teach you how to pray and to intercede and to get under and to get with and to get into somebody else's life. And that you will pray for them until God answers your prayer.

There is absolutely no human way to describe what God would do. If you and I would just take those simple principles and apply to our everyday life. Thank you for listening to Praying for Others. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.