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How do we pray for others when the circumstances are complex?

Distraction is one of the biggest hindrances to prayer. As I started to type this article, my mobile phone rang with a strange sound, and the screen told me to pay my mobile bill, fast!

When we pray for the needs of others, it seems easier if the person is young, successful and any presenting problem is comparatively minor. It becomes more difficult when the person is older, has a terminal illness, or an illness for which there is, as yet no known cure! Other factors sometimes make it even harder.

What does God actually promise us, and when and how do hie promises are apply? If we are praying aloud in front of the person, or in front of others, how will they be affected?

Some principles can help us here.

1 The Kingdom of God has been inaugurated, but will not be fully present until the Parousia (Return of Christ). See Ephesians 1. The passage in James 5 about praying for the sick is set in the context of teaching on the Second Coming. The Kingdom (and its blessings) is both "now" and "not yet".

2 All things that happen are subject to the sovereignty and predestination of God. (Romans 8-10).

3 God tells us to pray proactively, and to leave the form of the answers to him. In James 5: 13 we are exhorted to pray for the sick. The response to "the prayer of faith" is both healing and forgiveness. How much of it comes before the Return of Christ is up to God.

4 We are encouraged to pray "outside the square in which you live". Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith or firm trust in God and his promises is in believing him to do beyond what our own experience treats as possible.

5 When we pray, it sometimes looks as though God is doing nothing, but Jesus taught the Parable of the Seed Growing Secretly (Mark 4: 26-29) to show that God is at work even when we cannot see any evidence that he this is so. We tend to feel silly or superficial when we pray for something to happen that may never have yet occurred. Yet Psalm 103: 1-5 indicates that God heals "all" your diseases, meaning that he heals every type of disease (subject to his sovereign will). God honours pioneering. A person might be the first to see his/ her prayers answered for someone to be healed of AIDS, for example. There are reports from Uganda that it has already happened. What is important is that we do not enter into pretence or denial and announce that a healing has occurred when there is no evidence as yet that it has occurred. When we pray the prayer of faith, God will always bless the person. The form of that blessing is not for us to pre-determine. We may be the ones most surprised when God chooses to answer miraculously.

6 We can pray with authority. God has given us weapons in prayer against the devices of the enemy:

The achievement of the Death of Christ (Revelation 12:11)
Praise (2 Chronicles 20)
Authority to use the Name of Christ (Luke 10: 19; Matthew 18: 18-20)
The Scriptures and other Scriptural armour described in Ephesians 6: 10-18
The word of our testimony (Revelation 12: 11)

7 We do not need a lot of faith to pray into difficult situations. We need only faith as a grain of mustard seed.

8 We do not always need to know how to pray. The Lord himself covers that. (Romans 8:26-27). We can pray (esp. in private or semi- private situations) in unknown tongues, which reflect the prayer of our non-rational dimensions, the cry of the heart.(1 Corinthians 12-14).

9 Intercessory prayer is self-sacrificial. When we are distressed, it is for the benefit of others. When we are comforted, it is for the benefit, also, of others. Lindsay Johnstone

Copyright J. H. L. Johnstone April 2001. All rights reserved.

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