Prayer Changes Me

     

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  James 5:16

This morning I spoke to someone for a few minutes that I have only met once but with whom I have had several phone conversations and, lately, phone prayer. She is a sweet, young (compared to me), godly woman wanting to please God more than anything in her life. She lives far from me but we are forming quite a bond as we pray together and I hear what’s on her heart.

We started praying because of the heartache she was feeling for some others in her life going through a difficult – and possibly rebellious season of life. My phone friend has been grieved for the losses to this family and for the apparent sin they were displaying to the world and their own children.

I have always heard it said that when we pray God changes us. Though the circumstances may not change, sometimes our viewpoint changes as we ask Him to work from an eternal perspective. Today, I heard change in the words of my prayer partner. She was more sensitive to what is happening in the lives of the people that have led them to their current circumstances. She was looking as much at her own heart and judgments of the situation as she was at the situation itself.

Sin is never good. God clearly tells us that He will not let it go. Our sin will find us out (Numbers 32:23). Sometimes though, it’s difficult to know when to pray and when to speak up about someone else’s sin. Surely, God can handle it without us but He also tells us that He will use us – especially with other Christians. We are instructed to admonish each other. Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

The call my friend was hearing this morning was that call to gentleness in this verse. It is also translated “meekness” in some versions and implies that we are to approach these situations with humility. Sometimes we jump in and slam someone with words that haven’t been thought out or prayed over and we find that we do more harm than good. A “holier than thou” attitude is just spiritual pride and tends to put others on the defensive rather than having a softening effect.

What I heard this morning and pray that I and anyone who may need to confront me about a sin will adopt, was this attitude of humility. These were not her words but essentially she prayed, “Let me see if I am being too critical, too judgmental. Show me how to love and restore these people – not how to accuse and condemn them.”

After we got off the phone I realized that our prayer time was changing us. We are seeing that even in some pretty unhappy circumstances God is at work in the people involved and in those of us who are praying. As we pray we are beginning to see things more from God’s perspective and less from our own. In His grace, He is using these phone prayers for other’s to change us.

Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. Psalm 86:6