Pray Unto Others

• Posted on sdgale
• in 'CHOP Talk' Blog
• on April 5, 2013
• Comments Off on Pray Unto Others

I am a big proponent of praying specifically.  As a pastor praying for the sheep Christ has entrusted to me, I don’t just pray, “Lord, bless everybody.” No, in the model of the Good Shepherd who knows His Sheep, I pray in keeping with my knowledge of them—their joys, their sorrows, their needs, their struggles, their circumstances, their history.

But it’s not always possible to know well those for whom we want to pray.  So we pray generically, asking our God in keeping with the reconnaissance of the human condition we find in His Word.  The Apostle Paul certainly prays meaningfully in this way.

For example, Philippians 1:9-11 is a one-size-fits-all sort of prayer.  It’s always germane, always timely.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Still, it’s good to pray specifically when we can.  But how?  Our Lord gives us direction.

In response to a question by an expert in the law, Jesus says that the second great commandment is to love our neighbor.  How do we know how to love our neighbor?  The rest of our Lord’s statement tells us. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

The Golden Rule from the Sermon on the Mount says much the same thing. We are do unto others as we would have them to unto us.

In both cases the “as” directs us to a standard we can well understand.  It sets the bar to which we are to aspire.  Just as we have our interests at heart in the way we view and treat ourselves, so we are to employ that tact in how we view and treat others.

This tact for loving others also directs us in how to pray for others more specifically.  When a prayer request comes across our desk asking us to pray for someone who has been in an automobile accident, we can pray, “Lord, heal them.”  But we can take it a step further by asking ourselves what needs (physical, financial, relational, spiritual, emotional) we would have, what struggles we might face, what fears might besiege us.  Putting ourselves in their shoes, we can better represent them before the throne of grace.

Using ourselves as a point of reference in interceding for others touches on the principle behind 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

Having been in situations approximating the one we are ministering to through prayer, presence or precept we are better equipped to empathize.  Empathy resonates deeper in the soul, drawing us nearer to the person in similar affliction, and drawing us to the throne of grace in greater detail.   In all cases, our goal is to beseech our God and Father, from whom all blessings flow.