ONE OF GOD’S GREATEST PRIVILEGES FOR BELIEVERS!

SCRIPTURE:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all 
of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel 
from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began 
a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ 
Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you 
in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the 
gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I 
long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my 
prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and 
depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may 
be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of 
righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise 
of God. (Philippians 1:3-11)

MEDITATION:
Privilege is defined as: honor, treat, pleasure, joy and opportunity.
Paul understood what is expected of all believers.  
He had a love for other believers 
and knew the importance of intercessory praying.  

Sometimes when others are in the midst of a crisis, 
they have every intention of praying, 
but the effects of the ‘moment’ often keep them distracted.  
This is where other brothers and sisters in the family of Christ 
can (and should) communicate to the Lord for them.  

When we consider the needs of others above our own needs, 
we are following in Christ’s footsteps.  
He set aside His own desires 
in order to provide salvation for those He loves (everyone: good and bad).  

When Paul said, “I have you in my heart”, 
he knew something about the love Jesus talked about.  
There may be times that the Lord causes us to think about someone 
and cause us to feel a need to pray for them.
We may not know exactly how or what to pray for them. 
 
When in doubt, pray as Paul prayed for others. He prayed that: 
    - they would have a deeper love for others
         (which would make them more like Jesus)

    - their insight of right and wrong would increase
         (they would learn to see sin as it is, and hate it as God hates it)

    - their discernment (not judgment) would improve
         (basically, he was praying for them to have godly wisdom)

    - their purity would increase 
         (by default, he was also praying that their sin would decrease)

    - they would receive the ‘fruits of righteousness’ 
         (listed in Galatians)
         But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, 
         kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 
         Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23).

    - they would glorify the Lord (in all they do and say)

ACTION:
Have you considered what an awesome privilege it is to pray for others?
How often do you pray intercessory prayers for others?
Praying for others is not a “one and done” action.
We should pray for others throughout the difficulty they are experiencing.

We should also pray continually for those who either do not know the Lord,
or for whatever reason have started drifting away from Him into sin.
It we allow him to, Satan can create anger and frustration in our hearts
and cause us to “write off” those sinking into sin, but that’s not what
the Lord expects of us (He didn’t write us off - He continued to love us).
One of the greatest needs of those on a self-destructive path is to know
that they are still loved; how can they know unless we show them? 
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 
But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for teaching me about intercessory prayer. 
Thank You for those You have encouraged to pray for me during my
difficult times. Thank You Jesus for Your prayers to the Father for me.
Teach me to become more sensitive to the needs of others and less 
focused on myself. I know that when I do that, selfishness will become 
less a part of my life. When You pierce my mind with someone, help 
me to develop a habit of praying for them at that moment. Help me to 
realize that You brought them to my mind because they need intercessory 
prayers. I may not know what is going on in their life, but You do.”