Monday Devotional: Are You Praying for Someone? Don’t Give Up.

Are you a praying person? Have you felt moved by God to pray for specific people—for friends, for enemies, for relatives, for co-workers, for leaders, for missionaries, for the lost? When God places a name on your heart, there comes with it a divine assignment to pray. The assignment is never just about the well-being of the person for whom you are praying. Certainly much is at stake for them or the Father would not have placed them on your heart. But that assignment to pray is also about you. You need to pray for them. There is something that the Father wants to accomplish in you through your prayers for them. We often undervalue the significance of God’s call to pray for others.

As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. 1 Samuel 12:23

In this text, the people of Israel had rejected the prophet Samuel and the God for whom he spoke. They had opted for a kingdom led by man rather than one led by God. Samuel, by all human standards, would have been justified if he had blown-off the entire rebellious bunch, took his marbles and played elsewhere. That would certainly include not praying any longer for them.  But Samuel felt no such freedom. His call to pray for the nation was not based on how he felt about them or on how they did or didn’t respond. His call to pray was an order from God. Not only did the people need his prayers, Samuel needed to pray for them. There was growth, humility and tenacity that God could produce in Samuel only through his persistent prayers for a rebellious nation. So he kept praying for them. To cease praying would have been sin.

And you know what? It’s the same for us. Far be it from us that we should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for those for whom God has called us to intercede.

How frustrated have you become in your prayers for others? Have you taken someone off of your prayer list because of how they act, because you feel like it’s not working, because they have hurt you, because you feel that it’s futile, or because you don’t want God to really bless them? The assignment to pray is never just for the benefit of others. It is always about you and your obedience. God wants to grow you through your faithful praying. He wants to grow your faith in the waiting process. If you stop praying, everyone loses.

Set your face to prayer and let God deal with the outcome. Just obey. To stop praying short of the divine release from the assignment is sin.