A Kingdom-Minded Prayer Life

"For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you." - Romans 1:9-10

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." - James 5:16

I wanted to take a somewhat different look at this verse, this morning. It's very easy to look at this verse and say, "No relevance to today!" and move on. But I think there's something here that we should take interest in.... the dedication of Paul's prayers to the Body of Christ. I think this is an area in which we are quite often forgetful. I know I am!

What if the people of the church constantly prayed for one another and for the body as a whole? Don't you think that, perhaps, there might be less divisions? Perhaps we would come to church with the mindset that we are there to serve, rather than to simply come and be "filled" or "fed." Too many people leave churches and go "church hopping" because they "weren't being fed" at the last church they went to. My theory behind this story is that they weren't involved enough, nor were they serving enough, to really be a part of the bigger picture. It's easy to grow tired of a show... and if that's how you see church... there is a very good chance of you becoming weary of the same thing, week after week.

Don't hear me wrong on this... I'm not saying that it's not important to be filled up with the encouragement that comes meeting together with other believers. Nor am I saying that church is a place meant only for those who serve every Sunday. What I am saying is this... That if you are becoming weary of your Sunday morning "routine" then perhaps your heart needs a little changing... And that's where prayer comes in!

Praying for someone else can change your entire perspective of that person. Jesus told us to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44) Why do you suppose He would tell us to do this? Perhaps that might gain a new perspective of that person's life?

Now, let's not even go as far as enemies... let's just consider praying for our acquaintances, friends, and families. Do you not think that constant prayer on behalf of those whom you know would cause you to feel a greater compassion for them? Don't you think it might cause you to feel more strongly about preaching the message of salvation to the ones who aren't saved? If you are constantly mentioning them in your prayers... and I mean sincerely mentioning them, not just, "Oh yeah, God, and I pray for Fred." How about, "Lord, would You do the work, that I cannot, in Fred's life. Father, would You call him to Yourself, and would You please use me to minister to him." Do you see the difference? Do you see how the second example might cause you to grow in compassion towards Fred's soul? Do you see how the love of Christ might just seep into your heart towards Fred, and cause you to love Him as Christ loves him?

I heard an example once preached like this.... The preacher said, "God says this to you, 'I'm gonna go throw a party in that person's soul. You wanna come along?' And then we have the responsibility of either responding to that call of ministry or we can sit back and God will use someone else to do His work... In which case He says, 'That's fine, but I'm still gonna throw the party, I'll just get someone else to bring the confetti!' "

The entire point I'm trying to make is this... if you are praying earnestly for someone, and an opportunity to minister to that person comes along, you aren't going to sit back and let the opportunity pass you by... not if you're as sincere as we're talking about here. This requires, though, that we truly grasp this concept of making "mention of you, always in my prayers making requests..."

So, back to the "what ifs" I mentioned at the top... What if we prayed for our pastors? What if we asked God to bless them and that they might bring a fresh word, from Him, that we might be built up in our understanding of Him? And the saying, "fresh word," may sound kind of weird, but it's so true! The Word of God is living and active as it's as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. If we prayed that God would move in His people, through the preaching of His Word... What crazy things might begin to happen, and all of this for the glory of God?

What if we prayed for those who are down-trodden in our congregations? What if we visited them and comforted them? What if the people of the church actually ministered to one another as God intended? What if lives were being changed because of the prayers of the saints, on behalf of one another? I would imagine that the body of Christ would be that much stronger and that much more of a powerful witness to those who come to "check out this 'Christianity thing.' "

Friends... prayer on behalf of the body of Christ is essential! There's no way around it... we MUST remember to think outside of ourselves when we come before the Throne of God Almighty! The throne of God is the perfect place to go when things are tough for us, but it's also the perfect place to make petitions on behalf of another...

We could probably spend a week, or even a month, on the subject of prayer alone! But I will leave you with these few thoughts for now. I plead with you... don't forsake the responsibility of praying for others. We have been given, through the Holy Spirit, the gift of direct communication with the Creator of the universe! Don't waste your "minutes" on idle chit-chat about the earthly things that you desire to have... Be "Kingdom-minded" in your requests to the Father.

Grace and Peace!

Questions or Comments? E-mail me at afflquestions@yahoo.com .