The journey of prayer #2 "The providence in prayer"

In the previous article, I shared about how I came to remember Jesus' deep anguish of love. Jesus hurt from his love and compassion for those around Him. Likewise, we also are given the heart to experience and act on love, the love with deep anguish concerning the eternal destiny of our neighbors. 

Well, this was a huge realization for me, and the beginning of a long journey. A journey of challenges and temptations, repentance and forgiveness, and experiencing his mercy made new every day. 

Basically, I had no idea what to pray for my neighbors.

Some of my closest friends are nonbelievers, and I love them and love to spend time with them. I, however, scarcely had the courage to ask them how I can pray for them. Even those friends that I was able to talk about my faith and about God, asking them how I can pray for them was a whole different matter. I was afraid that they might think I'm rude for seeing them as 'needy' or 'in need of prayer'... I was afraid that they'd think I'm being too 'holy' or too 'Christian' and no 'fun'. I was just, really afraid. 

I knew that the Holy Spirit was nudging me to pray for them, and to ask them how I can pray for them. I knew it, but I was afraid. 

But then as I was reading the Bible during the daily quiet time, I came across a verse. I was reading through Jeremiah (and Ephesians) then, a book of sorrow and tears because of the Israelites' continuous ignoring of God's word. The verse was this: 

" “Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.’” (Jeremiah 35:17)

God was speaking to me, calling me, and I was inclining towards ignoring and not obeying Him.  I knew that God was calling me from the other passage I was reading, which was Ephesians, written towards the early church that was rapidly growing despite the persecution. 

" For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—" (Ephesians 1:4-5)

I knew that in this time and season, God has called me to pray for those who have not yet heard or believed in Him. I was chosen for this purpose, and I truly did want to obey His will. After all, I have been praying all this time for "His will to be done, and not mine", for "Him to become my everything, and me to become nothing". But this small action or asking for prayer requests was already difficult for me.

So I prayed. Before I did anything, before I quit, before I gave up, before making rash decisions and bending God's calling to fit for my own comfort, I prayed. This simple prayer, word to word, is what I messily wrote down in journal: "Give me wisdom to ask them how I can pray for them. Please give me the courage to ask and open their hearts to it as well." 

After I prayed this tiny prayer, I texted my closest nonbeliever girlfriends. 

A day later, they had all texted me back and opened up to me with their prayer requests. Some even said, "thank you for asking", which was a huge surprise. This experience taught me two things about obeying God: 

1. When we obey God, no matter how scary it is, he will give us all the strength and courage we need. All we need to do is, ask. 

2. When we obey God, He blesses us abundantly in ways that we cannot imagine and surprises us, leading us to want to praise him even more. 

God showed me his power and taught me his faithfulness through this experience. He showed me that he truly is a provider; that he will give us just as much as we need. He truly is my portion. He showed me that prayer is not just supplicatory, but intercessory as well. As chosen children of God, I believe that we are called to intercede for our nonbeliever neighbors. Whether God had called them to salvation or not, that's God's decision and we leave that to God. We admit his sovereignty and abandon our own desire to control it all. But still, we are called to love our neighbors as Jesus did. I hope this may become an encouragement to you, to turn to Him, to seek him, and to obey him. 

I recently found this quote in my journal (I'm not sure where it came from), "Truly living for God makes us favorable. So be confident in His Love." Living for God and obeying him is oftentimes scary, but have faith and be confident in His Love, because we know that His love is true, His love is real, and that His love is more powerful than anything and everything. 

Finally, here is a passage from the Bible that I pray for my neighbors, friends, relatives, and family. 

"I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength" (Ephesians 1:16-19)