“Moreover, as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.”
-1 Samuel 12:23
This is quite a verse. When you hear this leader among God’s people saying this, “Far be it for me that I should sin against God,” it is a sin against God for a leader to cease to pray for those he leads, or she leads, and it’s a sin against God for he or she not to instruct them in the good and the right way. I want you to think about any capacity in which you have leadership in others’ lives. Is a sin against God to cease to pray for those you lead, and to cease to point them in good and right ways. And really there’s a sense in which regardless so whether or not we’re in a leadership position, God has called us to this.
God, we pray that you would help us to be faithful intercessors, not ceasing to pray for those around us and those far from us.
1 Samuel 12:23 Gives Us the Privilege of Prayer
We have been given the privilege of prayer before God and specifically intercession for others. You and I have an open invitation from the God of the universe to come to him on behalf of others in need at any time, and to pray for them. And we have been commanded to pray for them, to pray without ceasing. And all kinds of different ways we pray, but certainly that includes interceding for others without ceasing, continually interceding for others.
So think about your life, your leadership, your family, your spheres of influence around you, the people you know, far be it from us that we should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for others, and by not pointing others to good and right ways.
1 Samuel 12:23 Reminds Us to Intercede for People
So God, we want to obey you right now, and to pray for people around us. God, help us to be faithful intercessors, make us faithful intercessors for people around us, for our spouses and our kids. Help us to be faithful intercessors for our families, for our parents, help us to be faithful intercessors, help us to be faithful intercessors for our friends, for our coworkers, for our neighbors, to come before you on their behalf.
Help us to be faithful intercessors for people in need around us, People with spiritual needs, and need of salvation, for people with physical needs. God, help us to continually intercede before you for others in need. And as we pray for them to have your heart for them in ways that lead us to instruct them in good and right ways according to your word, in ways that lead us to encourage them and edify them and point them to your word, to that which is good and right.
This Verse Leads Us to Faithfully Intercede
We pray that you would help us to be faithful intercessors, not ceasing to pray for those around us, and those far from us. As we have the opportunity to intercede for people groups around the world, God help us to be faithful, to pray for Malay people, some of the most unreached people in the world, so hard to reach in Malaysia.
We pray, right now we intercede for the spread of your grace among the Malay people. God, help us to be faithful to intercede for unreached people around the world. Jesus, we pray all of this knowing that you are a faithful intercessor for us, according to the Book of Hebrews you live to intercede for us, that you are constantly interceding for us by your spirit with groans that words cannot even express. All glory be to your name, our faithful intercessor, help us to reflect you in the way we intercede and pray for others. In your name, we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
