“As for me, far be it
from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you…But be
sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what
great things he has done for you.” 1 Samuel 12:23-24.
After God’s chosen people demanded a king, they were given
what they asked for. God used His
servant Samuel to anoint Saul as their leader.
It wasn’t that God agreed with them, but rather allowed their desires to
play out. Make no mistake…God saw their
desire for a king as complete disobedience and rejection of His Lordship. Samuel was aware that the only way for them
to be successful in their circumstances was to never lose sight that it was God
who set King Saul before them. Samuel
goes into a farewell speech to the people basically reminding them of how many
times they had rejected and forsaken God.
His words echoed the many messes they had gotten into through the
generations and how God had rescued them each time. Samuel basically ended the speech with ‘Heaven
help you…I don’t agree with you…but here are the things that must be done at a
minimum.’ The most interesting nugget
from this passage is his promise to pray for them not out of concern for them,
but to keep him from being responsible for sinning.
Interesting…I know the power of praying for those who are
not living according to our opinions. I
have just come out of a season where I continuously prayed for someone who had
hurt my family. My motivation of prayer
for him was not out of my deep love for him, rather out of my desire to see the
situation become more stabilized. Never
in my mind, did I consider that to not pray for him would be a sin. Samuel, God’s mouthpiece, unapologetically
assigns failure to pray for others as being a sin. Notice that his part in the process was to
keep himself clean before God, while their part was left between them and God.
When dealing with people in our lives, our part is to pray for
them without judgment, and God’s part is to justifiably deal with them on His
terms. When we do not have a heart of
prayer for everyone, we set ourselves up to be justifiably dealt with also…just
for a different sin.
So let us live a ‘far be it from me’ life and lift a prayer
for both friends and foes.
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