Praying for others.
All of us have often heard the saying of Jesus in the New Testament in Matthew 5: 43 :
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you".
This was one command of Christ about which there were gaps in my understanding.
(probably gaps still exist, for the Word of God is so profound... I can only see
one angle at a time.)
This commandment once seemed to me as more of a 'saintly' command to follow.
How I understood it to mean is that if you can do it, it is a good deed and you must be a really saintly person.
If you did not (or rather could not), you would remain just a normal human being only with that plus point missing.
In other words, a good to have, but not necessary virtue.
God thankfully wants me to realize the error of my ways and showed me
it was an actual sin not to pray in that fashion.
Let me tell you about the context where I learned this. I had been praying for
a person's interests and it so happened that the next time we met, that person
behaved a bit rudely. I began to think, is it really necessary
to pray for that person's interests now?
That is when God gave me a firm knock on the head through his Word.
The message came through the book of Samuel, about the sin of the Israelites in asking for a king
and the response of Samuel. This is the Word :
1 Samuel 12:23.
"As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you".
The message was clear : it is regarded a sin against the LORD to fail to pray.
You cannot be a righteous person before God, if you cannot pray for others.
Praise be to God for loving me enough to correct me!
All of us have often heard the saying of Jesus in the New Testament in Matthew 5: 43 :
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you".
This was one command of Christ about which there were gaps in my understanding.
(probably gaps still exist, for the Word of God is so profound... I can only see
one angle at a time.)
This commandment once seemed to me as more of a 'saintly' command to follow.
How I understood it to mean is that if you can do it, it is a good deed and you must be a really saintly person.
If you did not (or rather could not), you would remain just a normal human being only with that plus point missing.
In other words, a good to have, but not necessary virtue.
God thankfully wants me to realize the error of my ways and showed me
it was an actual sin not to pray in that fashion.
Let me tell you about the context where I learned this. I had been praying for
a person's interests and it so happened that the next time we met, that person
behaved a bit rudely. I began to think, is it really necessary
to pray for that person's interests now?
That is when God gave me a firm knock on the head through his Word.
The message came through the book of Samuel, about the sin of the Israelites in asking for a king
and the response of Samuel. This is the Word :
1 Samuel 12:23.
"As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you".
The message was clear : it is regarded a sin against the LORD to fail to pray.
You cannot be a righteous person before God, if you cannot pray for others.
Praise be to God for loving me enough to correct me!
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