Praying For, Not About
I love it when the Lord reiterates something He has spoken to my heart, but in the reiteration helps me see a much broader application than I originally understood. The most recent example happened when I began to pray about an issue being discussed by our lawmakers in Washington, D.C. – the issue of marriage remaining only between one man and one woman. As I prayed concerning the challenge the homosexual community is bringing against this, one particularly well-known homosexual lawmaker came to mind. At the same moment I thought of him, the Lord reminded me of what He had so recently made clear to me concerning prayer, no matter who is the target – that I am to pray for the person, not about them.
With that lesson in mind, as I prayed concerning this man, I began to see him as our heavenly Father sees him – with agape love, and with a desire that he come to know how much he is loved by God, Who created Him in His image. From that perspective, my prayers truly became prayers for him, as I prayed for skillful laborers of the gospel to surround him everywhere he went. The prayer was for these laborers to walk by the Holy Spirit to help him know how much God loves him for who he is. The prayer was also for the eyes of his heart to be enlightened so he may know the hope to which God has called him (Eph. 1:18), and for him to come to know that God so loved him (I called out his name) that He sent Jesus Christ to die for him (John 3:16). The Father’s true desire is for this man’s salvation, above all. Having received much judgment from the Christian community through the years, I imagine his view of the wonderful love and forgiveness of Christ has been impeded. Instead of praying God’s judgment upon him, I prayed for God’s mercy to be poured out upon him so as to draw him to Himself.
If I had prayed as in the past, I’d have asked God to stop this man and others like him from hindering His righteousness in this nation. I’d have reminded Him of their sin and the problems they are causing. I wouldn’t have prayed for him at all, but about him. To get to the heart of it, I would have done nothing more than complain to God, telling Him the problem, as if He didn’t already know, and maybe even saying what I thought He should do about it. What wasted time and effort! No changes would have taken place, because I didn’t pray as Jesus said to pray.
Matt 5:44 “. . . pray for those who persecute you . . . “ NIV
Luke 6:28 “. . . pray for those who mistreat you. . . “ NIV
I believe Jesus was also calling us to pray for those we love and those we don’t love; to pray for those we know and those we don’t know; to pray for those with whom we agree and with whom we disagree. He didn’t tell us to pray about people, but for them. This requires true humility, recognizing that the only righteousness in us is the righteousness of Christ Jesus. After all, it’s only by God’s grace, not our self-righteousness, that we are not involved in the same sin as the person for whom we pray. From this place of humility, we can begin to pray from heart of God for them, with His desire for them to know Him and walk in the fullness of His Truth.
When we pray for someone, it is to help, to strengthen, to build them up to become what God created them to be. We do this by faith, declaring what God has already declared about them, regardless of what we see. When we pray about someone, we pray only the things we see with our natural eyes. God wants us to pray with His eyes, which can be found in His Word. It is from that place that we pray with power, for we are in agreement with His will. Let’s pray for people every time we pray – not about them!
© Copyright 2007 Kay V. Stocking
