Saturday, March 15

Pray for Everyone

Saturday, March 15

I Timothy 2:1-2

In my Concordia Self Study Bible, when I find today’s verse, I open up the page where I Timothy 1:1-2 is displayed and find a large 2-page map of St. Paul’s 4^th Missionary Journey. Now the Bible only hints that this trip was in Paul’s mind.  (Rom. 15:24, 28) There is no record in Acts of this 4th journey. But other historical sources in the first 3 centuries indicate Paul was set free from his first Roman imprisonment (Acts 28), and the 4^th journey spanned the Mediterranean Sea, from east to west.

At the end of the book of Romans, Paul mentions 28 people he knows in Rome. Imagine if he had recorded all of the people he met on his 4 missionary journeys! We’d have an entire book, filled with just names.

At the beginning of I Timothy 2, we are introduced to Paul’s habit of praying for many people, pretty much everyone he can think of: “First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made in behalf of all people, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all Godliness and dignity.”

Pray for everyone! It is quite the list!

I think of a scene in the Hollywood version of God in the film “Bruce Almighty.” Bruce is given power over a certain realm with limitations; he is also given responsibility! I’m happy that our friends in Hollywood included that in the script. Bruce has to now answer the prayers of everyone in Buffalo, NY! It is depicted as a cacophony of voices praying simultaneously so that Bruce feels overwhelmed. But God is never overwhelmed.  He hears and answers each prayer!  Remember that.

When Paul tells us to pray for everyone, doing so can seem overwhelming. But read it this way: “Pray for everyone and anyone that you meet!”

What happens when we pray for “anyone”?  We begin to see the world as Christ does – all His people, created by Him and for Him (Col. 1:16) even though they may not know this or believe it.   That Christ-like perspective changes our heart to pray for the guy who nearly caused an accident or the person with piercings all over, perhaps due, in part, to not having contentment in Christ. It also reminds us that prayer is a great and powerful tool. Our prayers – offered to and through Christ – can be transformed into Godly weapons of righteous love! We can place heaping coals of love on people in our prayers (Rom. 12:20) and melt hearts, theirs and ours.

Come to think of it, I’m going to pray for our Hollywood friends who included benevolent responsibility for the character Bruce in their script! I guess that is what this command of Paul’s is about.  Like Christ, we become God’s instruments of benevolent responsibility in our prayers. We pray for people to know the love of Christ Who had a benevolent mindset and acted and prayed for each one He knew of – and that was everyone!