Praying for Your Friends

Praying for Your Friends

“And the LORD restored  Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.  Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before."  (Job 42:10 NKJV - note: God turned the captivity of Job - what was captured from Job)

I will admit, I have been going through some challenging things, and it is not just relationships.  Yesterday I stopped to say hello to my neighbor, and she told me she might lose her house, so I grabbed her hand and prayed for her and for restoration.  There are a lot of people going through difficult things - strained finances and the holidays always makes the absence of a life companion, or just a nice date, ever more glaring.  

On Sunday a lovely lady with crystal blue eyes prayed for me, and then she told me that she too was waiting and praying for breakthrough in her life.  She knows hope deferred.  As she prayed and gave her faith on behalf of my concerns, I saw God bringing abundant restoration to her.  I heard myself say, “As you give to others through your prayers, it will be given to you.”

“Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over; will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  (Luke 6:38 NIV)

Christmas is the season of giving, and we bring our gifts to the King of kings to celebrate His miraculous entrance into our impossible circumstances.  As I have recently battled worry, doubt, and unbelief, which all pull my eyes into my navel, it has been on my heart to “pray for my friends.”   Job's friends were dishonest, so if you have friends like that, pray for them.  But what is tugging on my heart is not only to pray for others who are struggling, but also to pray for the people who are blessed with a great marriage, wonderful children, and a steady income.  To pray for those who are walking in the fullness and fulfillment of their hopes and dreams; the epitome of the desires of my heart.   

Is there sometimes a sharp pang in your heart when you see your friends blessed with the very things that you have been praying for...waiting for, and longing to see God fulfill in your life?  Oh the slippery slope of self pity, and we have all been there.  

The remedy?  Pray for your friends!  Pray for MORE blessing on those who seem to have it all!  

“Rejoice with those who rejoice!”  (Romans 12:15) 

“Give and it will be given to you!”  

Praying for your friends is not a formula to GET double restoration from God, it is the Kingdom principal of a generous God.  When we take our eyes off of our own circumstances, and focus on loving our LORD and other people, God restores our faith, hope and joy!  

Who is God putting on your heart to pray for today?  Give the gift of blessing others this Christmas season!  

Praying for our friends, and praying the Word:  

• Father God, I pray for my friends ____________, that You will bless their socks off this Christmas.  Strengthen their marriages with more love for their spouses, and more love for You.  Bind them together with the gift of Romance, and give them them wisdom to keep You at the core of their relationships.  Protect and empower their children to walk even closer with You as their Lord and Savior.  Increase their financial blessings to enable them to give more then they have dreamed possible.  Holy Spirit, visit them with dreams and visions for Your Kingdom!  Give them Your love and joy overflowing - that rivers of living water will pour out on their communities, and all who come in contact with them.  

• (and from Ephesians 3 The Message)  "I get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you [my friends] by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God."

• And for YOU:  20-21God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. 

• “Now to Him Who, by the power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above ALL that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams] - -   To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.    AMEN!  [so be it!]  (Ephesians 3:20 Amplified)  

Expecting to be amazed ~

Barbara

© Barbara Nelson – 2011