A strange
thing happens to Christians as we pray for others, we somehow come to love
those we pray for. I have cried for
those I have never met, I have come to love people who I once detested, all
through genuine prayer for them. For it
through prayer that we are able to come closer to Him, through true and
authentic prayer that we begin to realize that we are coming to the living God
who created us, that we are not even worthy to stand in His presence and yet He
allows us to come to Him and present prayers to Him. I think of the story Christ told of the Tax
Collector and the Pharisee found in Luke
18:9-14. “Then
Jesus told this story to some who had great self-confidence and scorned
everyone else:
“Two men went to the
Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax
collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank
you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax
collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery,
I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ “But the tax
collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he
prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to
me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned
home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will
be honored.”
Notice how the Tax Collector prayed, he came and before God and was
humbled. He realized that was broken and needed God’s forgiveness.
If we allow God to bring us into the center of His will for
us, through prayer true and authentic prayer.
It is through this type of prayer God not only brings us to the center
of His will, but as we pray to be more like Him, He allows us to begin to love
others as He loves them. I do not
pretend to understand how all of this works and I am not ashamed of that, for
God is Love. If God is Love then we too
must become love. I can however say that
I know it is true, as I have prayed for those I have never met I have come to
have a deep love for them. The first
time this happened to me was over a year ago as my wife and I begin to pray for
a child that we had been told we were going to adopt. We both begin to pray for
this unborn child, we had agreed with the birth mother on what the name of
child would be. We had our bags packed,
we had been promised by our agency that the mother was not going to back
out. As it would turn out she not only
backed out but we found out she had been lying to us the entire time. We were both devastated, we both went through
a great amount of pain, a pain we both carry to this day. I could have easily written this mother off
and no one would have blamed me or my wife.
Only one problem I already had a love for her son. I choose to instead forgive her for the pain
she had caused.
I have since continued to pray for both her and her son
Josiah, I pray for a mighty work in both their lives. I pray the same prayer for Josiah I had
before he was born. I believe because of
prayer God placed a love in my heart for a person I will most likely never meet
while on this earth, He also taught me what it feels like to love someone who
is never going show love to me. He
showed me that in the center of His will is love, love for people, the people
He created and wants to have a relationship with. A people that He decided even though they
deserved death and condemnation He would create a way for them to come before
Him and humble themselves and be saved from their sins.
“For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but
have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but
to save it. “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who
do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of
God. Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the
world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were
evil. They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay
away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be
punished. But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone
can see that they are doing what God wants.” (John 3:16-21)
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