Several years ago I attended a gathering of church leaders and pastors. The intent of the gathering was to create an opportunity for us to talk about what was going on in our lives and ministries, to offer up praises for the good things God was doing, and to share our concerns and pray for one another. To be completely honest, as I walked away from the meeting that night, my heart was heavier than when I arrived. An interaction between two church leaders left me feeling uneasy and a little discouraged. Something inside of me couldn’t shake the thought that an important opportunity had been missed that night and that there was a lesson to be learned.
As we pray for others, acknowledging their struggles and suffering, we should do so with confidence and full expectation that God will act in His time and according to His purposes.
The meeting began with an invitation to share “praise reports,” stories of good things that had happened in our lives and ministries. One man stood and shared a story of an amazing financial blessing that he and his church had received. I don’t recall all of the backstory, but a wealthy member of his community had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to his ministry. It was enough money that his church was able to pay off all of their debts and still had enough left over that they wouldn’t have to worry about finances for years to come. He was understandably excited about this amazing overflow of grace and generosity. All in attendance were amazed and shared in the man’s excitement and joy.
A short time later, we shifted gears and the keynote speaker took the floor. The speaker served as the Executive Director for an organization that houses, cares for, and rehabilitates troubled youth. He shared stories of amazing works of healing and restoration that were taking place through the work his organization was doing. He then asked that we pray for God to provide for the financial shortfall they were facing due to the recession we were experiencing at the time. When he finished speaking, the man who had shared about his financial blessing stood and encouraged us all to pray that God would provide for the needs of the Executive Directors ministry, making comment about how God could provide the same type of windfall blessing that he himself had experienced.
As we prayed, I felt extremely uneasy. The man who received the blessing could have covered the entirety of the shortfall and wouldn’t have missed it. Rather than praying for provision, he could have been the means of provision. Perhaps that was the reason God had provided so much extra in the first place (1 Corinthians 1:3-5 would seem to indicate as much). I was frustrated and more than a little bit angry, but as we prayed, the Lord brought to mind times when I had done the same thing. The Lord convicted me of moments when He had provided me with the means and put me in the place to be the answer to the prayers of another and I failed to act appropriately. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer, but I’m also a firm believer that we, as followers of Jesus, are often called to serve as the means of God’s grace to answer the prayers of others.
Prayer is absolutely a call for God to intervene through His power and presence, but might it also be an invitation for us to partner with God in powerful and meaningful ways through our own efforts and actions?
There are moments when prayer is all we have to offer. But, more often than not, prayer should function as an invitation to act in partnership with God, not an excuse to passively sit by in inactivity. As we pray for others, acknowledging their struggles and suffering, we should do so with confidence and full expectation that God will act in His time and according to His purposes. But, as we pray our hearts and minds must also be open to the distinct possibility that God may be calling us to be an answer, in part or whole, to the prayers of others. God may well have provided blessings in our lives in order that we might have the honor and privilege of being a participant in answering the prayers of another.
Prayer is absolutely a call for God to intervene through His power and presence, but might it also be an invitation for us to partner with God in powerful and meaningful ways through our own efforts and actions? In 1 John 3:18 we read, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” We should absolutely pray with expectation that God will intervene and work as only He can. But we should also consider how God might have provided for and prepared us to actively serve as an answer to prayer.
