How often do you pray for others? Do you only pray for those you know? Do you primarily pray for good health? Do you pray they come to worship? Will you pray for people you do not know? Will you pray they come to know God and reach out to him?
We often pray for family and friends. More often than not, we pray for their needs, especially health issues. We may also pray they are moved to join us for worship services. These are good prayers for people we know. But who else can we pray for?
Solomon shows us in his prayer to God during the dedication of the temple that we can pray for people we do not know. He prayed for foreigners who may come to pray at the temple because of what they had heard about the God of Israel. He is implying the foreigners may hear of God’s mighty acts on Israel’s behalf.
How can we model this prayer? We can pray that people we do not know will choose to come to our church building because of the mighty acts of God. We can pray these people will hear of how God is working in our lives and our congregation, and decide they need God in their lives. As Solomon did, we can pray that God hear these “foreigners” prayers and grant them their requests to further the message of Christ and let people everywhere know who God is.
I pray we all pray for others. I pray we pray that people we do not know will come to our church building to pray. I pray each one of us will pray as Solomon prayed, asking God to answer the prayers of people we do not know. Pray for others. Pray for strangers. Pray that people come to God. Pray that God continues building his church.
1 Kings 8:41a, 41c, 42b-43a Likewise when a foreigner … comes from a distant land because of your name … and prays toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you.
Marty Pressey 