Thank God for Those Who Pray

“I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”  Philemon 4-6

Philemon is only one chapter in the New Testament.  Paul wrote to Philemon, likely a minister in the Colossian church who had a servant named Onesimus.  This servant stole from Philemon and ran away.  By God’s grace, he ended up in Rome and became acquainted with Paul who was serving time in prison there for preaching the gospel.  Under Paul’s witness, Onesimus received Christ as his Lord and Savior and became a helper to Paul temporarily.  Paul wrote this letter to Philemon to urge him to receive Onesimus back into his household because now Onesimus was a spiritual brother of Philemon and not just a servant.  He was, indeed, as scripture promises, a new man in Christ.

Paul wrote that he prayed for Philemon without fail.  How good it is to know that someone prays for us always.  Paul had nothing but thankfulness in his heart for Philemon because of the good in the heart of Philemon put there by the grace of God.  We should always be thankful to God for our Christian friends and relatives.  Just think how lonely and discouraged we would be if we were only surrounded by unbelievers with no one likeminded as we with whom we could share conversations about the Lord and His blessings toward us.  It is miserable to be surrounded by people who have no use for the Lord, who use vulgar language in every conversation, and make fun of those of us who do trust Christ and try to live righteously.  If the truth be told, I think that some of those folks are really envious of the joy and contentment that we have as a result of our faith in Christ.  It’s just that they don’t want to give up their sinful lifestyle.  They think that living for the Lord would be a drag and very restrictive, but, oh, if they could only experience the truth of knowing Christ.  As someone once said, “In Christ I am free to do whatever I want; it’s just that I don’t want to do those things that I used to do.”

Paul had been with Philemon probably not that often, but he had heard from others about the depth of love and faith in Philemon’s heart for Jesus Christ and for all the saints, that is believers, followers, and disciples of Jesus.  Anyone who has repented and received Christ as Lord and Savior is a saint.  Some of us may not always act like a saint, at least what we think a saint should be, but we are saints, nonetheless.  Some folks pray to certain men and women whom they deem as saints, but we are not to pray to saints; we are to pray directly to God through Jesus Christ.  Saints have no power to answer prayer.

Speaking of prayer, Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 5:17 to “Pray without ceasing”, that is to always be ready to communicate with the Lord any time of day or night in any place or situation.  Think of it this way:  most folks wouldn’t be caught dead without their cell phone.  Carrying one’s cell phone with them at all times, keeping it by their bed at night, and keeping it charged up means being ready to talk or text with someone at all hours of the day.  Jesus doesn’t have a cell phone, but, of course, He doesn’t need one and neither do we need one to talk to Him.  He is always ready to hear our prayers and relay them to His Father, and we need to always be ready to speak to Him about whatever our needs are or whatever is troubling us.  Of course, we pray for ourselves, but it is good to pray for fellow believers, relatives, neighbors, friends, co-workers, and even our enemies because Jesus commanded it (Matthew 5:44).

Our faith is displayed when we pray for ourselves and others.  That is faith in action.  If we never pray, then how do we show the Lord that we are trusting in Him to do His will in our lives?  Our prayers are not always answered in the way we desire, but God, in His infinite wisdom, gives us the answers that we need.  How many times have we prayed for something, but God did not give us that desire, and later on, we are so thankful that we didn’t receive what we wanted for it likely would have not been good for us?  And don’t we want what is good for us?  And doesn’t the Lord know what’s good for us, better than we know for ourselves?  Children want all sorts of stuff, but wise parents know whether those desires would really be good or really be detrimental to their child and act accordingly.  One of my former pastors said that his father would try to give him what he desired if it would be good for him.  God is our Father, and I trust Him to do what’s best for me.  I am so glad for the privilege of prayer.