February 11, 2020

Praying on Behalf of Others

Filed under: Christianity - Devotions — paulthinkingoutloud @ 5:33 pm
Tags: intercession, itimacy with God, Jesus, prayer

Part of our mission here is to introduce you to new writers, but a subset of that includes highlighting the work of younger writers. Karsten Harrison is still in high school, but I recently enjoyed reading three different articles on his blog, For the Disciple, which were part of a series on prayer. (See January entries.) sClick the header below to read this one at source, and then take a few minutes to look around at other articles.

How to Pray: Supplication

Prayer is the unifying act between God and man. This beautiful action marks the covenetial communion between Lord and His image bearers. In the Spirit, we pray to the Father and through His mediating Son. This truth is absolutely precious: we are intimately interacting with all three persons of the trinity in the act of covenential prayer. Prayer is intimacy with the Father, and a healthy prayer life reveals a true, meaningful connection to the Lord of all creation. Furthermore, prayer is not to be taken lightly; rather, it is a delicate procedure that requires intentionality. When we pray, we are to adore the Father, confess our sinfulness, give thanks to the Father, and finally, supplicate our prayer for others.

Continuing the theme, Nehemiah 1 depicts a true, intimate prayer. In Nehemiah’s prayer, he demonstrates adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and even supplication on behalf of his fellow Israelites.

“As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, ‘O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.’

Now I was cupbearer to the king.”

Nehemiah 1:4-11 ESV

All prayer must conclude with a ministerial mindset: praying on behalf of others. Jesus was sent by the Father to redeem all of humanity; not just you. Because of this truth, it is important that urgent requests are made on behalf of those that are lost. Furthermore, believers are to pray for other believers. The church is one, unique body of people who share in the common faith in Christ. This means that believers must, be fervent in praying for one another: in fleeing from sin, in receiving wisdom, in pursuing Christ more, in reading more, or whatever else a fellow believer may be in dire, spiritual need for.

Jesus, likewise, demonstrated this act of prayer in John 17. This entire piece of Scripture emphasizes the prayer Jesus makes on behalf of His disciples.

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

John 17:9 ESV

Christ prayed specifically for you: that you would be filled with joy in Christ, kept in the Father’s hands, sanctified in the truth of the gospel, unified as one body, that you may be glorified. As believers, we are to pray on behalf of others. We are to make supplication to the Father for those around us.

Scripture Reading

“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

‘I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

‘I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’”

John 17 ESV