We say it a lot. Do we realize who else is praying?
I heard my dad one night, talking in his room.
Now understand, my father lived with us – with my wife and I, then our three children. My mother passed away before I got married, and my father had first intended to stay in Atlanta, on his own. But it wasn’t long before he called me one night and said, “Can I come live with you?”
I was single at the time, although I believe my now-wife and I were engaged. My father told me his plan was to live with me part of the year, then spend part of the year with one of my brothers, who lived in Florida, and then part with my sister, who lived in Texas.
And he did. For a while. Sometimes he would go and stay with my aunt and uncle – his sister-in-law – in Florida, and he really enjoyed that. But it didn’t take long before he became more and more fulltime with me.
It wasn’t always ideal. There were times we’d have liked to have been the “nuclear” family of just my wife and I and our kids. But there was also the bonus that he’d look after the kids if my wife and I had to run out, so that we didn’t have to find babysitters (although his babysitting generally consisted of him sitting in his easy chair, watching TV, while letting the kids play wherever and do whatever, with the occasional shout of ‘hold that down in there’ from him when they got to loud or rambunctious. In other words, it wasn’t a lot of direct supervision.)
There are a lot of stories about my dad living with us. He loved to work, and he wanted to be useful, so he’d cut the grass and do yard work. He had been a builder, so if we needed something fixed or built, he delighted in being able to do that. He was always looking for something to do, so at times it was like having a live-in caretaker.
Until he discovered golf.
Then there was his TV. He watched shows we didn’t typically watch. He particularly became a fan of “Seinfeld.” And we’d hear him laughing out loud from his sitting area, and sometimes he’d come into the family room to tell us something that just happened with Jerry or Kramer or one of the other characters on the show that he found particularly funny.
But late one evening I remember walking past his bedroom door and hearing him talking. I eased over to try to figure out what was going on, and I realized he was praying. Now my dad was an old King James kind of guy, so his prayers had a lot of “I beseech thee” and “thou hast” and that kind of language in his prayers. And I realized he was in there, praying for me, and for my kids, and for our family.
It was a really powerful moment for me, to hear my father praying in such a personal way for us.
You ever have someone pray for you, specifically? It’s pretty remarkable. Humbling. Empowering.
I was thinking about that as I was thinking about what Jesus is doing right now.
We like to talk about what Jesus did – dying on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, rising from the grave. And we like to talk about what Jesus will do – come back one day, restore the earth to its intended glory, take us with him to live forever in eternity.
But it seems to me we don’t talk a lot about what Jesus is doing right now.
Hebrews 7 says Jesus is “making intercession for us.” He speaks to the Father on our behalf as our High Priest. That’s why we pray in the name of Jesus. We can approach God the Father with confidence because we know we have Jesus as our intercessor.
Now imagine if you walked by a room where you heard Jesus praying for you. By name.
In fact, a 19th Century minister in the Church of Scotland, Robert Murray McCheyene, once said: “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference; he is praying for me.”
Do you ever think about the fact that Jesus is praying for you personally? That He’s interceding before God on your behalf?
That, to me, is a mind-blowing thought.
Even more when you consider what Satan is doing. Sometimes I think we talk about Satan too much, and sometimes we don’t talk about Satan enough. The Bible refers to Satan as “the accuser.”
I think one of Satan’s chief actions is spelled out in Rev. 12:10: “For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God, day and night, has been hurled down.” Satan is the accuser. We see it in the Old Testament, in Zachariah 3, and famously in the story of Job.
Well, if Satan is standing there accusing me before God – like he did with Job - and saying Ray is a sinner and corrupt and deserving of punishment, I have to agree with him. I’m all those things, and more.
But then Jesus is also standing there saying “I’m here on behalf of Ray. And I took Ray’s punishment. So let me tell you about the new Ray.”
I might agree with Satan’s assessment of me, but I much prefer Jesus’ point of view.
In his old age, the “Disciple whom Jesus loved,” John, wrote (in 1 John 2), “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins …”
Now that word “if” really means, at least for me, when it happens. I don’t want to sin. I don’t want to go against God. But sometimes that old nature has its way with me. And when that happens, John says, “We have an advocate with the Father.”
That’s pretty amazing, to think about Jesus’ interceding – praying – for me, on my behalf, this very minute, in heaven. But it’s not just me. He’s doing it for you, if you’re a Believer, and for this world.
I find myself saying this almost every day, more and more as I feel like this world is going to hell in a handbasket. But I believe it:
The world is not falling apart. God’s plan is coming together.
So when you feel overwhelmed or alone or hopeless or burdened or things just seem out of control, remember:
Jesus is praying for you.
