Prayer, one of the most important elements of a believer’s life, is both enjoined and exemplified in the Bible. One of the great examples is found in Job 42:10; Job was upright and turned away from evil, neither did he sin or charge God with wrong in spite of all his adverse circumstances (see 1:8, 22), yet he had some flaws but was open to God when they were revealed, and repented in 42:6. Following this Jobs three “friends” were enjoined to repent bringing a burnt offering, after which Job prayed; not only was his prayer for them heard but the Bible said “the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.” The Hebrew word for prayed here is Palal, meaning to intercede, entreat, and make supplication (this verb is used more than 80 times in the Bible). This is prayer not just from the top of the mind or through ritual; rather it is the kind of prayer James talks about when he says “…pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” James 5:16. Not only does such prayer avail for the ones for whom we are praying, but it seems it opens a channel for God to bless us also! It is our responsibility to pray for others as we can see from 1 Samuel 12:20-23 where even when the Israelites had done wickedly Samuel said “far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.” We are told to “Pray without ceasing” in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Don’t become discouraged and give up, the example James used in 5:17 was Elijah who prayed seven times until the rain came, 1 Kings 18:44.
My prayer for you
By Rose Hill
May the Lord answer when you call,
May He pick you up when you fall.
May He give you help for He is nigh,
May He strengthen you when you sigh.
May He remember when you sacrifice,
To do for others and treat them nice.
May He give you all your heart’s desire,
May He start in you a holy fire.
May He give to you what you ask,
May He strengthen you for every task.
Now I know He will answer my prayer,
And always for you He will be there.
For I love you much and remembered to pray,
So I’m sure the King will answer today.
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.