PRAYING FOR ONE ANOTHER
The Bible says: “pray for one another” (James 5:16). “Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy…for they will see God” (Matthew 5:7-8).
The Bible shows that when we pray for one another all are blessed.
ISRAEL AND MOSES WERE BLESSED BY HIS PRAYING FOR THEM.
Moses was on a mountain communicating with the Lord on behalf Israel, God’s Old Testament people. While Moses had been away, they built a golden idol calf to worship. When he came down and saw that they were sinning against God, he interceded and asked God to “please forgive their sin.” Rather than destroy all the people the Lord loved, he disciplined them with a plague. (Exodus 32:30-33; Hebrews 12:6-7).
Later, Moses was shown mercy when he disobeyed God.
The people of Israel was very thirty in the desert when the Lord said to Moses: “Take the staff,(Q) and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water.(R) You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
9 So Moses took the staff(S) from the Lord’s presence,(T) just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together(U) in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”(V) 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water(W) gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy(X) in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:8-12).
The Lord God disciplined Moses by not allowing him to enter the land God promised Abraham with the people of Israel. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Hebrews 12:6; Deuteronomy 8:5).
However, because of the Lord’s great love, and because Moses showed mercy for his people, God permitted Moses to foresee God’s promised Savior, and tell the people what God said concerning the Savior: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.(A) You must listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15). Furthermore, God let Moses appear in the spirit with Jesus. the promised Savior, on a Mountain, where God told the disciples of Jesus in a voice from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).
Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a];(A) and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
JESUS’ PRAYING AND SUFFERING SAVES BELIEVERS AND GLORIFY HIM.
Jesus agonized in prayer to be able to die in agony on the cross for our sins. He had finished all the other work his Father gave him to do for us. However, before he actually gave his life on the cross, he prayed that the Father would keep those who had believed in him. And in petitioning the Father, the Lord said, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.” (John 17:6-20).
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” {John 3:16). Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Jesus said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).
We ought to be “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).
God’s word tells us: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,b 7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,c being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:4-11).
“If we suffer with [Jesus], we shall also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12).
BELIEVERS’ PRAYERS FOR ONE ANOTHER BLESS ALL INVOLVED:
The Word of God says, “do not merely look out for our own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
- BELIEVERS BLESS EACH OTHER WITH THEIR PRAYERS.
The Lord tells us to “pray especially for those of the household of faith;” and to “bear one another’s burdens.” (Galatians 6:2, 10).
All of us have experienced some adversities in this life—trials, sickness, death of loved ones, financial difficulties and various problems. The Lord has helped us all in some ways. As a result, we are able to help each other with the same help which the Lord has helped us. (2 Corinthians 1:4).
In praying to the Lord concerning the burdens of others, the Lord often diverts our attention from some our worries and relieves us from much of the stress and weight of our own problems (Matthew 5:7). And “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).
- BELIEVERS BLESS UNBELIEVERS WITH THEIR PRAYERS.
Our Lord God “does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Peter 3:9). The Lord instructs believers: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” Mark 16:15-16).
And the Word of God urges “that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” (1 Timothy 2:1-6).
When unbelievers become believers in Jesus Christ as their Savior, they become our spiritual brothers and sister. We then have more believers praying for one another and each other’s concerns, and being blessed. And we all blessed as praying members of God’s heavenly family.
