Praying for Others

PRAYING FOR OTHERS Spring Valley Mennonite; March 13, 2022; 1 Thessalonians 3:10-13 Our subject this morning is "Praying for others." From S.D. Gordon's book "Quiet Talks on Prayer" come these observations: "The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to pray. It is not the only thing. But it is the chief thing. For if a man is to pray right, he must first be right in his motives and life. And if a man be right and put the practice of praying in its right place, then his serving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence of God." Gordon goes on, "The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; not those who say they believe in prayer, nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these people who take time and pray. There are people that put prayer first and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer."1 Most of us would admit that we pray less than we should. It is therefore good to be reminded of how important prayer is to the Christian life, and to encourage one another to pray. If you are like me, my prayers are much more intense when I have a problem. So perhaps that is why God allows us to have so many problems! But prayer is so much more than a response to the problems in our lives. Prayer connects us with our heavenly Father in worship, praise, thanksgiving, and intercession for others. Prayer is the avenue for the confession of our many sins; prayer is communication with our Lord and Savior, the One who loves us most, and for blessed fellowship with God. Special words are not needed. A parent overheard the prayers of his young daughter-she was just repeating her "ABC's." When asked what she was doing, she said that she couldn't find just the right words, so she was giving God the alphabet and letting Him sort out all the words! Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit, as well as Jesus speaks to the Father on our behalf, taking our feeble words and making sense of them. Paul's prayers for the churches are especially instructive for us. We find his prayer for the Thessalonian Church in the last four verses of chapter 3. We can learn much about praying for others from this passage. Read 3:10-13. I. GOD IS SOVEREIGN IN THE MATTER OF ANSWERS TO PRAYERS Chuck Swindoll cites Dr. Donald Barnhouse as once coming to the pulpit and making a statement that stunned his congregation: "Prayer changes nothing!" You could have heard a pin drop in that packed Sunday worship service in Philadelphia. His comment, of course, was designed to make Christians realize that God is sovereignly in charge of everything. Our times are literally in His hands. No puny human being by uttering a few words in prayer takes charge of events and changes them. God does the shaping, the changing; it is He who is in control. Swindoll then comments, "Barnhouse was correct, except in one minor detail. Prayer changes me. When you and I pray, we change, and that is one of the major reasons prayer is such a therapy that counteracts anxiety."2 As we look at verses 10, 11 and 12 notice the word "May." "that we may see your face", "May complete what is lacking", "May our God and Father," and "May the Lord." These words in Greek are in the "Optative" voice, meaning there is a recognition that it may or may not happen: it is optional, depending on God's will. We would express the same thing if we said, "It may rain tomorrow." We do not change God's will through our prayers; we do not "make God do anything!" Psalm 119:89 "Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven." But let that fact be a comfort, for if God could be manipulated by our prayers, chaos would surely reign! A farmer prays for rain, while another prays for sunshine! In wise praying, we recognize God has the right to say "Yes, No, or Wait" in answer to our prayers. I have been so glad that God has said "No" to many of my impatient and selfish prayers! But in His wisdom, God often says "No" because He has something better for us. Paul prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed, but God left it with him to teach him that "My grace is sufficient." The prayer that ALWAYS has a "yes" answer is "Thy will be done." God always knows what is best for us, and He loves us too much to give us something inferior or hurtful. Paul's motives are the purest in asking God to allow him to revisit this church to teach and instruct, but he recognizes that God may say "No." In fact, that was the answer to his wish to revisit. We have no record that Paul ever returned to Thessalonica. In these verses we find: II. THREE MAJOR THINGS TO PRAY FOR OTHERS Often our prayers are so non-specific for others that it would be difficult to know whether they have been answered or not. "God, bless all the missionaries" sort of prayers. Now I realize that there are times we don't know the specific needs of others. In such cases, we find three general things in these verses for which to pray for others. The first of these is seen in the words from verse 10, "to complete what is lacking in your faith." Complete has the sense of perfecting, of getting progressively more advanced in the faith. There is nothing so basic a need in a Christian's life as that of the growth and development of one's faith. The meaning of the word is to be taken in the sense of "The Faith." It includes knowing about God and His plan of salvation and how He perfects and grows us to become Christlike. It includes how to know and follow God's will, and how to be an effective witness in word and life. It also indicates a growing intimacy and closeness. What better thing to pray for someone that they would grow and increase in their Christian walk? A second direction in which to direct our prayer for another is that other believers would increase and abound in love for other Christians as well as for all men. There are over 30 "one-anothers" in the New Testament, but love appears more frequently than others. We are told to love one another eleven times! Our culture usually equates love with emotion, or a feeling. Love is so much more than that! Love is a commitment to another's welfare, meeting their needs of encouragement, sympathy, instruction, correction, and security. Love for other believers is so important, that on the night before He was crucified Jesus gave special attention to it. John 13:34-35: "A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." The world is given the right to evaluate Christians by our love for one another. I'm not so sure I do a very good job of loving Christians with whom I don't agree. But I don't have to disagree in a disagreeable manner! But I am not to pray for other believers only about their love toward other believers, but that they would increase and abound in love for all men. Alice and I watched an incredible video this last week entitled "Sabina." It is the story of Sabina Wurmbrand, the wife of Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs. The story details her life preceding and during World War II in Romania. The Wurmbrands were Jewish but became Christians before the war. Sabina's two sisters, a brother, and I believe her parents were murdered by the Nazis. As the war was coming to a close in Europe, the Russians moved into Romania. They began hunting down anyone in the German army. God brought together Sabina and the man responsible for the deaths of her family. When introduced to him, she moved toward him and embraced him, murmuring in his ear, "I forgive you." Sabina's husband Richard had arranged this meeting to prove to this drunken, murderous bully that God existed. He predicted to this man that Sabina would show love instead of hate. That is one of the best examples, other than the sacrifice of our Lord for sinful man, of loving all men. The third way we can pray for others is that God might "establish their hearts blameless in holiness before God" at the coming of the Lord Jesus. This speaks of a purifying hope. As we look at the event of Jesus' return for the church, His coming in the air and our joining with Him, we will be motivated to live holy lives. The certainty of Jesus' return at any time is a strong motivation toward holiness. As we pray for others, we pray that they would live holy lives, and be motivated to do so by the return of Christ. The doctrine of the imminent return of Christ demands a Pre-Tribulational Rapture, otherwise we know that the return of Christ will be at the least seven years away. We will get into describing this wonderful and exciting event in chapter 4, but Paul taught that the bodies of believers who have died before this event will be united with their spirits which are now with the Lord. At the Rapture, we will be instantaneously changed, given Resurrection bodies and taken to heaven where the church will be presented to the Father holy and blameless. When will we be presented blameless before God? Are we blameless in holiness now? I'm certainly not, and I doubt whether you are either! Verse 13 states it will be when the Lord Jesus will come with "All His saints." I believe this verse is speaking of the rapture of the church. There are many things we can and should pray for other believers, but Paul emphasized these three: that they would grow in their knowledge and service of the Lord Jesus: their faith; that their love for other believers and for all men would increase and abound: their love; and that they would be motivated to holy living as they look to the return of Jesus: hope. Faith, hope, and love are mentioned in the "love chapter" of 1 Corinthians 13. When the Lord Jesus returns, our faith will be experienced in fullness, and our hope will be fulfilled. But our love will continue to grow for God and for others as the limiting effect of sin will be gone. The greatest of these is love. As we pray for others, we also see the need for these three areas to increase personally. As we pray, we may not know of the personal needs of others, but we will be on track with praying for their faith, hope and love. This is the word of God for us today. 1 S.D. Gordon; Quiet Talks on Prayer, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids MI; 1981 reprint of original copyright edition, 1904 by Fleming H. Revell Company; p. 12. 2 Charles R. Swindoll, "Swindoll's Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes"; Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville TN; (Under the subject of "Prayer,") p. 451. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2