Tuesday, 22 December 2009

• Protective Prayer is a Privilege

  Prayer should be an act of sacrifice. In praying for others, we should be offering ourselves, body and soul, in the service of that person's greatest good. We should be surrendering entirely to God's love. There are certain people that I pray for protectively every day, meaning that I pray that they may be guarded from spiritual and other forms of attack. I do not think that this is merely a question of me asking a favor of the Lord. Rather, I think real, personal sacrifice does need to occur on some level. At some level, I have to die if I am really to offer my body up as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). If my sufferings can really make up what is lacking in Christ's sufferings (Col 1:24), what does that mean? There is nothing lacking in Christ's suffering except application. They must be applied, accepted, embraced, in order for them to be effective. "Take up your cross and follow," is not a bit of optional advice.

  I am not asking God to do me a favor and keep an eye on this person. That would imply that God isn't already doing so, or that I could get God to do things, or even that I love more deeply than God does. God is already protecting all the people I care about far more effectively and lovingly than I ever could. So what is the point of my prayer? God is allowing me, as a favor, to desire something that He desires. I am entering, cautiously, fearfully and with unending prevarication, into the blazing torrent of God's fierce love for His little ones. When I pray protectively, I am not asking that He do anything He isn't already doing. Rather, I am humbly asking the privilege of being joined to it. God is already standing around all the innocents of the world, tenderly and protectively. His angels are shields to them. The people I care most about in the world are already surrounded by a wall of light. The devil can do nothing to them that God does not allow. I cannot ask better protection, but I can ask to be a part of it. I can offer myself up to this service.

  This is why I say that on some level, some real sacrifice of self has to take place, whether it be a black eye or sleepless nights or some embarrassment or whatever. In order to be joined to the sacrifice of Christ, we must sacrifice. I think it works in ways we could never have dreamed. I ask to be included in God's labor of love as a privilege. The fact that I can ask at all is a privilege. I am my brothers' keeper, and there is hardly a greater honor imaginable.

  How do you take part in the lives of others? In what ways do you partner with God and join in on His work? How do you view this partnership?
  

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