“I don’t know where I’d be today if my mom hadn’t prayed for me. I don’t think I’d even be alive,” my friend Rahim related. He was a former addict who’d spent time in prison for drug distribution. Over coffee one day, he shared the difference his mother’s prayers had made in his life. “Even when I disappointed her so badly, she kept loving me with her prayers. I was in a lot of trouble, but if she hadn’t prayed for me, I know it would have been worse.”
The Old Testament account of Samuel tells another story of someone who showed faithfulness to God and others through prayer. On the day Saul was coronated as king at Gilgal, the prophet Samuel was also disappointed. The people had placed their faith and hope for their future in a monarchy instead of in God.
As the people gathered, God displayed His displeasure through an unseasonable storm that terrified them and made them regret their decision (1 Samuel 12:16-18). When they pleaded with Samuel to intercede for them, he replied, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you” (v. 23).
Samuel’s response reminds us that praying for others is a way of keeping God first in our hearts and lives. When we love others by praying for them, we open the door to witness what only He can do. And we never want to miss that.
How does consistent prayer help you to keep God first? How will you pray for others today?
Strong Savior, thank You for praying for me. Please help me to follow Samuel's example and love others with my prayers today.
Learn how consistant prayer can change your relationship with God
Israel was set apart as “a holy nation” to serve Yahweh (Exodus 19:6; see Deuteronomy 7:6). God had always been their judge (Judges 11:27; 1 Samuel 2:10) and had fought their battles (Exodus 14:14; Joshua 10:42; 23:3; 1 Samuel 11:13). But by asking to become “like all the other nations, with a king to lead [them] and to go out before [them] and fight [their] battles” (1 Samuel 8:20), they’d rejected Him as their judge and king (vv. 7-8). After they crowned Saul as king, Samuel reminded them that God had faithfully come to their rescue time and again despite their unfaithfulness (12:6-18). Samuel warned of judgment if they persisted in unfaithfulness (v. 25). They confessed their sin and asked Samuel to intercede on their behalf. He assured them of his prayers and urged them to “fear the Lord and serve him faithfully” (v. 24). We too can pray for others, that they might keep God first in their hearts and lives.
