Christians will never fully understand the value of prayer, until we understand Ezekiel 22:23-31; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22; 1 Timothy 2:1-7, and Romans 12:9-21, especially verse 12.
These Scripture very strongly teach us the most important prayers we offer to God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, are humble, loving, caring, concerned prayers of faith for the needs of others; not for our needs, because Philippians 4;19 says, God will supply all our needs by Christ Jesus; thus, we should believe this, but pray for God to supply the needs of others.
If we move into a house with problems, at some point we can move to another house and leave those problems behind us, but people with life-threating problems, or who are care givers for those with life-threating problems, cannot simply pact up and move away from their problems, so these people desperately need our most faith-filled prayers of love and compassion.
Yes, we are all busy people, but we all need to set aside a special time each day for prayer, not for our needs, but for the needs of others, for Galatians 6:6-10 assures us what we do for others will also be done to us, so lavish on others, even strangers, what we want others to do for us.
And even though we seldom receive these blessings in our younger years, for they are being stored up for our advanced years, and then we will understand why our Lord had us to earnestly pray for the needs of others in our younger years. God always has a plan, purpose, and timing for everything.
Ecclesiastes 3:18-19 perfectly explains God’s view of how humans treat each other, is the same way humans treat animals, and it is all useless, meaningless, and ungodly.
Ecclesiastes 3:18-19—18 I thought about what people do to each other. And I said to myself, “God wants people to see they are like animals. 19 The same thing happens to animals and to people—they die. People and animals have the same ‘breath.’ Is a dead animal different from a dead person? It is all so senseless!
People totally control the animals we have as farm animals: or pets: We choose when, what, and where they eat; where and how long they sleep; when, if, and for what they have veterinary appointments; whether they will be inside the house, barn, or outside, and we choose the time and place for the veterinary to “put them down”.
Yet, as human beings, we permit those in some kind of authority to totally control us for a while, but then “that longing for freedom inside us” tries to burst forward and take back our freedom, but even then, we still act like animals, for we use “force against force” instead of giving it all to Jesus in humble, surrendered prayer, praise, thanks, and joyous worship; never seeing the way we treat the animals God entrusted to us is the way He has others to treat us.
We have seen the tee-shirts that say, “Lord, make me the person my dog thinks I am”. And likewise, we should believe, say, and live, “Lord, keep in my memory the way I treat animals and people is the way You will have animals and people treat me”.
“Lord Jesus, will You remove from me the desire to remain in my comfort zone, by praying for my needs, and replace it with the desire to pray for the needs or others, including their whole family and animals.” “Lord Jesus, teach me to love others with the same love You love me.” “Lord Jesus, thank You for showing me how I want the pet you gave me controlled, is the same way You will have others control me.”
Tim, Kim, and Jim Nabors
