Have you ever felt God nudge you to pray for someone you didn't particularly care for? Maybe it's just a season where you are disconnected from them, maybe they've wronged you, maybe you just grind each others gears, whatever it may be- you are just NOT in prayer mode for this person. You get on Facebook and as you're scrolling along you see them ask for a prayer request so what do you do?? You keep scrolling! Well, if you're anything like me you do. Until God keeps laying this person on your heart. I had two options. One- to never get on Facebook again so I wouldn't ever be confronted with needing to pray for them again. Two - listen to the prompting from God. Deleting the person sounds easy - and mature might I add- but it brings a lot of politics and confrontation with it possibly so you just keep scrolling and most of time ignore their posts. Then a thought worms its way into your heart and mind. "You wanted to be better in your prayer life, so here is your chance you little prayer warrior!". My response was immediately "but God, I didn't mean I wanted to pray for HER! I want to pray for so and so, for this and that etc..". But then God, you remind me we are to love thy neighbor. Both in Matthew and in Mark so that means it must be pretty important. Not only the fact that it is mentioned twice, but the fact that when it is mentioned, it specifically says it is one of the two main commandments we are to follow.
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:34-40
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:28-34
First I am to love you Lord with all of my heart, my mind, and my soul. Then I am to love my neighbor as I love myself. In 1 John 4:7-12 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us". If my ultimate goal if to reflect Christ, I must show love to even those whom I don't deem as lovable, just as Jesus Christ loved, and even died, for those who mistreated and mocked him. Let me repeat this. Jesus Christ died for someone I can't even get on my knees to pray for. Let that sink in a moment. Scripture tells us Jesus prayed "forgive them father for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Does this person in need even know why I can't bring myself to pray for them? Do they know why they are on the "keep scrolling" list? Do they know the actions or characteristics that I deem unworthy? I thank God every single day for seeing past my unworthiness. For seeing past my bad characteristics. For seeing past my pride, my selfishness, my inability to love as well as I should. There is NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING that deems me unworthy in Christ's eyes and if God created us all equal in His image, however hard that seems, then surely the person I can't seem to pray for is worthy as well.
Next comes my pride issue.
Man, I want SO bad to rub in the fact that despite their flaws, I prayed for them. There is a time and a place to acknowledge your prayers to someone and coming from a prideful place is not one of them. The Bible tells us in Matthew 6:5-15
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standingin the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
I couldn't tell you how many times Jesus went to pray alone. Just from the past few days though I have read it in several places- Matthew 14, Luke 5, Luke 6, Mark 1, etc. He didn't include his disciples, he simply went off alone to pray. He didn't even tell them what he prayed for. His best friends didn't know all of his prayer requests. Now please don't confuse what I am saying. I also believe in the power of prayer- in groups, in church, in small groups, in the car with a girlfriend wherever. I am NOT by any means discrediting prayer in fellowship or worship with others. What I am saying however is that some things are meant to be kept close to heart. In Luke 2,:17-19 it says "when they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." Mary treasured and kept in her heart what I am sure any proud momma wanted to scream out at a mountain top. Sometimes, the quietest, most subtle prayers only spoken in the safety of the walls of our heart are the loudest answered prayers in our life.
The gratification we receive shouldn't be a pat on the back or even a thank you. It should be just seeing the prayer come to fruition and seeing God work in a visible way. Knowing you were able to humble yourself enough to pray for someone, even through pride and arrogance, should be the gratification because that means you are making yourself more like Christ which is our ultimate goal. Being one step closer to our Savior should be our gratification. We shouldn't be a self-seeking, self-glorifying holy roller. We only need to humbly submit ourselves, our prayer requests, and our repentance to the Lord and let Him do the rest. Let God have the glory. Let God work in your heart in such a way you can put aside your differences to pray for someone you would've otherwise kept scrolling past.
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