Bible lessons
Published 10/28/2017
Have you ever thought about why pray to God for people if He already knows all the needs of all mankind? I can’t say exactly what brought me to these thoughts, but I have wanted to understand this issue for a long time. Why pray for other people? For myself, I found several answers to this question at once. There are several reasons why God wants us to pray for other people. It is possible that I was not able to find all the reasons, but you can always continue your personal study of this topic.
- So, why pray to God for other people?
- And the second question, if He wants this, then in what cases do some pray for others?
When we read in the Gospel of Matthew that all the hairs on our head are numbered (Gospel of Matthew 10:30), that God knows our hearts, He knows our past, present and future, then a fair question arises - is it really He can't help us Himself? Why is it necessary for another person to turn to God so that He turns His attention to the needy? After all, not even a single sparrow will fall to the ground without His knowledge, as the Bible says. Can God forget or not see man's needs?
This reminds me a little of the relationship between a resident and an official who could not agree on something with the one in power and asks a friend to help him. I couldn’t do it myself, I asked a friend who has other ways to ask an official. Does a loving God really not hear everyone and needs someone else to bring His attention to this or that situation? This is a rather primitive analogy, but that’s exactly what came to my mind.
We ask others to pray for us, we are asked to pray for them. For different situations, problems, health and other things. We may sometimes forget to follow through on our promises to pray for other people or their situations. "Pray for me". “Okay,” we answer, but we never pray for one thing or another. Or we may ask someone to pray, but then we do not pay attention to whether the request was fulfilled or not. This can become a bad habit, behind which the very meaning of prayer for others is lost.
Another reason why I became interested in this topic is that I myself rarely pray for other people. It was important for me to understand the meaning of this, so that if I pray, then I understand exactly that God wants it and understand why He wants it.
Let's try to look at passages in the Bible that talk about praying for other people. And based on them, we will try to draw conclusions regarding our topic. And once again I wanted to emphasize that we are not talking about prayer as such, but about those places in the Bible where we are talking specifically about prayer for other people.
Pray to God for enemies
“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
This passage is not just a description of an event, but it is a teaching that we must follow as disciples of Christ. This is the instruction Jesus gives to you and me, to each of us. It is also important for us to understand what is hidden behind a particular commandment or teaching, and in order to better understand the meaning that lies behind them, in order to better understand God and His desire for us.
It is understandable that God wants us to pray for our enemies. But why? We remember the very good example of Jesus Christ. While He was on the cross, He prayed for His enemies:
“Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” and they cast lots, dividing His clothes among themselves.” (Gospel of Luke 23:34)
Prayer for enemies is a very powerful tool. I cannot say who exactly this helps more - the enemies or ourselves. But it is a fact that such prayer can help us ourselves. Enemies: those who curse, hate, offend and persecute - this is the list of people for whom Jesus Christ teaches us to pray.
Praying for other people helps us have the right heart and attitude towards our enemies. She helps us fulfill other commandments: “Do not return evil for evil,” “Forgive,” and “Love.” And it also helps our enemies see a reaction different from the one they see in this world: in response to their evil and hatred, they see humility, patience and love. They see a person who is stronger than them, thanks to some unknown force. And this, in turn, very often becomes the reason for the repentance of those very “enemies”.
Continuing this theme, let's move on to the Old Testament, where we see the story of the relationship between Pharaoh and Moses. Pharaoh asked Moses many times to pray to God for him. Could Pharaoh pray on his own? Probably yes. But he asked Moses to pray for him. And here prayer for other people has another meaning.
We see the following situation where people prayed for other people:
PRAYING FOR OTHERS: BASICS OF SAFETY
Let's imagine this situation.
A certain person serves God. He builds temples. Prays for others. Everyone thinks that the Archangel Michael himself will accept his soul, but... The soul of this man perishes. Irrevocably. Neither the magpies, nor the prayer by agreement for the repose, nor anything helps. A person goes into the abyss of hell and does not want to get out of there, having begun to share hatred of God with demons.
What happened? Why such a terrible ending? An extremely important spiritual safety protocol was violated. And all this man's goodness did not save him. Let's talk about safety protocols for doing good and spiritual protection measures.
Imagine. You sing in the choir, in the church choir. For free. You are freezing in a cold stone temple. You listen to the rector’s criticism that “you need to sing differently” (and said in other words and expressions). You are doing a good deed, but you have been treated unfairly. Everything is boiling inside.
Let's look at another example. You pray for people. In “Dobroust” or according to your personal memorial. Not that important. It is important that you put a lot of effort into this work. You generously pay for your work with the coin of your heart, again and again, through pain and fatigue, doing your hard prayer work. You pray for the priests of your church, for the parishioners you know. And suddenly you were slandered and offended. They offended me for no reason. Or maybe you yourself stumbled.
You gave alms to a certain person, and then he spat on your soul. You did good and received something that can safely be called evil. This is a key description of the situation. You were doing good and then “something upsetting” happened.
You have invested SO much effort and work for them, and they are with you like this? Everything inside is turning upside down. Do Christians, or just good people, do THIS? Yes, this whole system seems to be based on untruths and has long lost its relevance. “What they say is correct: do not do good, and you will have no evil.” Popular wisdom, yes, yes.
Say it again - “do no good, and you will have no evil” and think about it.
Why do good people, people who do a lot of good, then die. They are dying so loudly that it makes a noise. They die in such a way that the demons in hell greet this sinful soul with respect. The trouble is that there is a double trap on us. If you don’t do good, faith without works is dead. You don’t believe, you are a “believer of rituals”, you perform rituals (or maybe you don’t perform rituals). And that's bad. There is no love for people - there is no reason to have mercy on such a soul, except through the prayers of other Christians. But there are nuances here too. Not every soul can be begged for.
The second trap is more dangerous. You do good, but... in the process of doing it you get carried away. The enemy very easily, with a light swan feather, pushes us not to love good, but to love OURSELVES IN GOOD.
Let me give you an example.
The priest loves prayer and service very much. And he is very strict with the singers. He is even ready to stop the service if he does not like the chant. He is even ready to finish singing it with the parishioners, because he does not like the singing of the choir. I read similar things in the diary of Metropolitan John Snychev. The question is - if a priest is ready to stop it for the sake of a personal vision of the service, is God in first place, or is his own vision of the service? “This service is good only if I personally like it, because it is my taste that embellishes this service.” Do you know what I mean?
But the singer can also make the same mistake in response. “This service is good only with the repertoire that I, the regent, see.” Over and over again, the trap catches good people in the same trap - “something is good only because I do it,” even if this thought is not clearly formed by consciousness and sits in the depths of the subconscious.
Therefore, the one who does such good can die so deafeningly.
He has already loved himself so much in goodness that he sees Paradise (again, subconsciously) only on his terms. Mercy? What other mercy??!!! To me??? Ya. Paradise. Zas-lu-lived. All. Dot. “Lord, open the gates...” It is for this reason that he who does good on such grounds immediately breaks down when he is unjustly offended. It was not possible to assert oneself; the main task of good was not accomplished. You feel like an exposed swindler, who is all the more bitter because he considered himself the smartest, having mastered this whole system of pleasing people.
Good based on pride is not good at all. It may look like goodness. It may have all the signs of goodness. But it cannot be good. Simply because the one who does it has completely different motives - self-affirmation through deeds. There is no main thing in his business - pain for others, empathy.
The one who does good should do it in such a way that another person rejoices, and not the one who does the good. Goodness must be based solely on love and compassion. And - enormous resources of the mind must be used to observe oneself so that it remains just that way. Remember the enemy's swan feather. Today you en masse add names to the memorial, and tomorrow you are convinced that only you know how to pray for others, and the day after tomorrow you consider the entire planet mired in sin. “Lord, burn”!
This is a very strong virus.
You have to fight it, making your heart hurt. Here is a baby with cancer, crying with fear. He doesn't want to die. How to wipe away his tears? How to wipe away the bitter tears of an elderly mother whose son drinks and beats? Look closely into the abyss of someone else's pain. Yes, yes, you will start bleeding tears. But this is one of the key points of keeping yourself good. You need strong images of someone else's suffering, so that your hands wipe away other people's tears, and not tenderly stroke your own merciful heart in the act of admiring the goodness being done. It will be difficult, it will hurt.
But goodness without pain will inevitably switch us to a beautiful landscape where our own “I” flies so beautifully among the stars...
Pray to God for those who are in sin or spiritually weak
“Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord that He will remove the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people of Israel sacrifice to the Lord” (Exodus 8:8).
Pharaoh asked Moses many times to pray to God for him. What exactly prevented Pharaoh from praying himself is not clear. Maybe his lack of faith to do it. Maybe a hard heart. Maybe sins or something else. We know that when Moses prayed, God answered him.
There is even a passage in the Bible that says God deliberately hardened Pharaoh's heart to show off His power (Exodus 11:9). Moses in these stories acts as a prayer for others in a role different from the one we discussed earlier. Here Moses intercedes for those people for whom he prays. A new prayer is opening up for us—intercessory prayer. See for yourself:
“The people came to Moses and said: “We know that we have sinned by murmuring against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord, ask Him to remove these snakes.” Moses prayed for the people (Numbers 21:7).
“The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him too, so I prayed for Aaron” (Deuteronomy 9:20).
“But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying: May the good Lord forgive everyone who has disposed his heart to seek the Lord God, the God of his fathers, although without the purification of the sacred! And the Lord heard Hezekiah and forgave the people” (2 Chronicles 30:19-20).
In all of these stories, people prayed for those who were in sin. They were, as it were, their intercessors before God. Here are some interesting excerpts, let's look at them. They will help us understand why these people could not pray to God themselves. Or why their prayers would not be as heard by God as the prayers of the people who prayed for them.
“The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.” (Proverbs 15:29)
“Whoever turns away his ear from hearing the law, his prayer is an abomination. (Proverbs 28:9)
or in modern translation:
“If a person refuses to follow the instructions of the Lord, then He will not hear his prayer.” (Proverbs 28:9)
And it happens that God does not even hear the prayers of those who pray for others:
“You do not ask for this people and do not offer prayers and petitions for them; for I will not hear when they cry to Me in their distress.” (Jeremiah 11:14)
“If they fast, I will not hear their cry; and if they offer a burnt offering and a gift, I will not accept them; But with sword and famine and pestilence I will destroy them.” (Jeremiah 14:12)
“You, Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people, don’t ask me to help them, I won’t hear your prayer.” (Jeremiah 7:16)
And the reason that God does not hear the prayers of other people is sin. But not just a sin, but a sin for which there is no repentance. “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” The prayers of people in sin are disgusting to God. No matter how sad it may sound, He does not hear them. It's not that He doesn't really hear them. But He doesn't listen to them. God tells Jeremiah not to pray for these people, since now his prayer will not be heard.
The power of prayer: why is prayer needed, is it safe to pray for others
Archimandrite Markell (Pavuk), confessor of the Kyiv theological schools, explains what change prayer makes in a person.
– Why is prayer needed? Is it possible to pray for other people?
– In order for our body to live, we need food, and for our soul to live, we need prayer. It is no coincidence that many holy fathers say that the world stands through prayer. In modern society, which relatively recently freed itself from the captivity of state atheism, most people, thank God, feel the need for prayer. If not the entire prayer rule, then at least many people know the Lord’s Prayer by heart and try to read it every day.
- Is that enough?
– The Lord Himself taught His disciples and followers the Lord’s Prayer. Its text is given in the Holy Gospel. In fact, in a few words of this prayer everything that is necessary for our salvation is stated. But over time, many other prayers arose, which are now published in prayer books and form the morning and evening prayer rules.
– Why are these additional prayers needed? Isn’t it better for a modern person, overloaded with thousands of tasks, to be content with one prayer, “Our Father” in his life?
– It is possible that in early Christian communities, where people experienced great inspiration from recently experienced gospel events, reading one prayer, “Our Father,” was enough. As this first enthusiasm for faith waned, when many people began to come to the Church who could not immediately give up their former bad habits and passions, the need arose to intensify prayer. The impoverishment of faith was already observed by the holy Apostle Paul. He writes about the deplorable spiritual state of some Romans, Corinthians, Cretans, and Greeks in his Epistles. Therefore, the apostle commanded everyone to pray without ceasing.
- Is it possible? After all, we have great difficulty reading even a short prayer rule, which takes us no more than half an hour, morning and evening, and for some less.
– As the experience of not only many devotees of piety, but also ordinary believers testifies, this is not only possible, but also necessary.
- Why?
– The fact is that, according to the teachings of the Apostle Paul, man is three-component. It consists of a spirit, which makes it related to God, a soul, which gives life to the body, and the body itself, with the help of which we move and can do something. When creating man, the Lord established a strict hierarchy between these parts. The body must obey the soul, and the soul must obey the spirit. When a person forgets about God (which happened and is still happening as a result of the Fall), then his spirit begins to live by the needs of the soul, and the soul - by the needs of the body.
– How does this manifest itself? After all, most people seem to be so kind, well-mannered, decent, tolerant, many have not one, but several higher educations. What else are they missing?
– According to the thought of St. Theophan the Recluse, as a result of the Fall, the soul fell into the flesh and man became carnal, proud, proud, envious, and lustful. The body needs little to satisfy its needs for food and drink and procreation, but when the soul, which is constantly in motion (ever moving), falls into the flesh, then the needs of the body increase indefinitely. A person can eat and drink a lot, even because of this, experience health problems, but for him everything is not enough. He can't stop in time. Also, the lust of the flesh in him can be inflamed not only for procreation, but to the point of madness, when a man ceases to be content with his wife, but takes on more mistresses. And now society has already sunk so low morally that it wants to pass off even unnatural sins as the norm. And in general, one can observe that all his life a person, under the pressure of various worries, spins like a squirrel in a wheel, but as a result he is left with an emptiness that no earthly consolation can fill.
– In order to settle down at least a little, to find the true meaning of life, is this what prayer is for?
– Yes, prayer just helps restore the hierarchy between spirit, soul and body, broken by sin. The exclamation of the priest during the Divine Liturgy: “Grief is our hearts” - constantly reminds us of this. That is, with the help of prayer we must lift our soul, the focus of which is the heart, upward and unite with God. If this happens, then the body's demands decrease sharply. It becomes easy for a person to fast and be content with little in food. Monks even completely renounce married life.
– But it can be very difficult for a person to tune in to prayer himself. What to do?
– To make it easier to distract yourself from the bustle of life and tune in to prayer, there is congregational prayer, in church during the service. Any difficult task becomes easy when we feel the support of other people. So in prayer, when the whole church is praying, then the most fussy and restless person also calms down and tunes in to prayer.
– If you feel that your prayer is still too weak, should you ask your loved ones to pray for you in difficult times?
- Necessarily. We become the Church in the true sense of the word only when we pray for each other. When everyone thinks only about himself, then even though such a person goes to church, it is doubtful that he is a member of the Church of Christ. In Transcarpathia, it is customary to remember aloud during the special litany all those standing in the church, as well as their relatives, near and far. And although because of this the duration of the service increases by almost half an hour, people are not burdened by this, but, on the contrary, rejoice, because they feel not alone, but members of the great Catholic Church.
– There is such a widespread belief in some Kyiv parishes that it is dangerous to pray for others, because in this way you can take on the sins of those people. This is true?
- In no case. The Church prays for everyone. First of all, about those who belong to it, and then about the peace of the whole world. You just cannot submit notes to the proskomedia with the names of those people who do not belong to the Church. But at home or when we stand in prayer in church, we can remember all the people we know, both believers and non-believers, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, both righteous and great sinners. If we don’t pray for people who are far from the Church, so that the Lord will enlighten, guide and have mercy on them, then who will pray for them?
“However, some people complain that when they start praying for others, for example, for their drunken neighbors or godless bosses, all sorts of personal problems arise. What to do in such a situation?
– Yes, the evil spirit really doesn’t like it when we pray for ourselves and for other people, he tries in every possible way to distract us from prayer, and sometimes even intimidate us (I know that for this reason some stopped going to church or went into schism); but in no case should we pay attention to his weak insolence; we must not be cowardly and cowardly, for then Satan can completely take power over us. On the contrary, we must strengthen our prayer for ourselves and for other people.
Pray to God for those in need or illness
“If any of you is sick, let him call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will forgive him. Confess your faults to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed: the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:14-16)
Then the king said to the man of God: “I ask you, pray to the Lord your God, pray for me, so that my hand will be healed.” The man of God prayed to the Lord, and the king’s hand was healed and became as before.” (1 Kings 13:6)
“Simon answered and said: Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing that you have said may befall me.” (Acts 8:24)
“Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and maidservants. The Lord made all the women in Abimelech's house barren. God did this because Abimelech took Abraham’s wife, Sarah.” (Genesis 20:17-18)
“Isaac’s wife could not have children, but when Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, the Lord, hearing Isaac’s prayer, made Rebekah become pregnant.” (Genesis 25:21)
“Pray therefore for us, brethren, that the word of the Lord may spread and be glorified, as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from disorderly and wicked people, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, who will strengthen you and keep you from evil” (2 Thessalonians 3:1-3).
When someone is in need or sick, it hurts. But we need to remember that without the knowledge of God, not a single sparrow will fall to the ground. Can’t God really heal Himself, without our reminder? Maybe. There is no doubt about it. But He wants us to learn to believe, to have compassion, to take part in His affairs. He wants His Name to be more glorified on this earth among all people.
If you remember the story about Lazarus, who died, there is a very interesting point there. Jesus tells His disciples that He is glad He was not there when Lazarus died. Mary says it's a shame Jesus wasn't there. But Jesus is happy, why?
“And I am glad for you that I was not there, for now you will be able to believe. Now let’s go to him.” (Gospel of John 11:15)
Jesus answered: “Now you can believe.” Not only do we gain compassion when we pray for others, but we also gain faith when God answers prayers. This is not a very easy topic to understand. God doesn't answer the way we want him to. He doesn't heal everyone. But in all cases we can learn compassion.
Praying with gratitude for others
Why pray to God and thank God for other people? Paul was one of those who constantly remembered many people in his prayers. He thanked God for his brothers and sisters. In almost every letter of his you can find his own testimony about this:
“God is my witness, whom I serve with all my heart, bringing to everyone the good news of His Son, that I remember you every time in my prayers.” (Romans 1:9)
“I never cease to thank God for you, remembering you in my prayers.” (Ephesians 1:16)
“We constantly thank God for all of you and remember you in our prayers.” (1 Thessalonians 1:2)
“I give thanks to God, Whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience. I remember you constantly in my prayers, day and night.” (2 Timothy 1:3)
“I always thank God when I remember you in my prayers.” (Philemon 1:4)
Gratitude for other people in prayer helps, in my opinion, in two things. Firstly, it helps you think more about people's strengths than about their shortcomings. And secondly, gratitude helps you think more about others than about yourself. The New Testament contains not only examples of prayers of thanksgiving for others, but also the teaching that we should think more about others than about ourselves. I think prayers like this for others serve this purpose very well.
Politically correct demon
Imagine demons abiding by the UN Convention on Human Rights, respecting territorial boundaries and private property rights.
When you beg your drunkard relative, then... well, he’s a relative, this is “your territory”, the demon will not attack. The politically correct demon will politely give in, because you need to respect other people’s boundaries. It's a different matter - ANOTHER drunkard. Excuse me here. Well, what can I say, such characters only appear in fairy tales and good foreign cartoons. The real demon is hatred. Cold, frantic, not recognizing any boundaries or laws. There will be no game according to the rules.
The answer is that it is dangerous to pray FOR ANYONE, for relatives, strangers. It is not dangerous to pray for the saints. Yes, it’s even nice to pray for saints. By the way, in “Dobroust” a lot of relatives of the saints—fathers, mothers—donate for the repose. For example, Eustorgius is the pope of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon. Or Philofron - Pope of Euphemia the All-Praised.
So... if the prayer according to the Dobroust agreement is familiar to you and you are already reading notes through Dobroust, then you also remember the numerous relatives of the saints.
Thus, naturally, bowing them to your mercy. They take you for granted. But it is dangerous to pray for any non-saints. It’s just like you’re living with a loved one. And his sin seems to influence you and interfere with your life. A rude, drinking, prodigal person under one roof somewhat poisons existence, don’t you agree? Praying for him is like an instinct of self-preservation. What a pity. Dear one.
Praying for strangers is a feat. There will be temptations both ways. Big ones? Yes, not small. It’s just your choice - learn to live with temptations and fight them, or... let someone else try. It’s just that then someone else will receive the crown of Christ’s heir.
Pray to God with consistency
“Pray with all prayer and supplication at all times in the Spirit, and strive for this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18)
“Be constant in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving. Pray also for us, that God will open the door for us to speak, to proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains, so that I may open it as I should proclaim it.” (Colossians 4:2-4)
Consistency plays a vital role in the matter of prayer. When Jesus Christ told a famous parable, he said the following words about good soil: “The grains that fell into good soil mean those who listen to the word of God with a pure and good heart, keep it faithfully and do not retreat until it bears fruit. " (Luke 8:15).” If in the case of seeds it is necessary to have patience and not give up until the fruit appears, then in the case of prayers patience is often expressed precisely in constancy.
Consistency shows how important what he does is to a person. This applies to sports results, for example. The bad athlete is the one who gives up after the first setbacks. But the one who has been purposefully pursuing his goal for many years will achieve success. He may not reach the highest places on the podium, but he will definitely be rewarded with a strong character and other fruits of his training. This applies to the professional career of any employee. Constant work on yourself and your business will bear fruit. So it is with prayer. Consistency in prayer shows God our sincere desire and the importance of what we ask for.
