PRAY FOR US

Jeremiah 42 - 44; background passage of this entire account; Jeremiah 42:2-22; v. 2 "And he said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted bbefore thee, and prayer for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) v. 3 That the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. v.4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words; . . .v. 20 For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it." There is much to this entire passage of Scripture from Jeremiah 42 - 44. We will center in on these three words, 'Pray for us' found in verse 2 and verse 20. In verse 4 we have the answer of Jeremiah upon the requests of the people for him to pray for them. He say, 'I will pray for you'. There are many found round about us that need prayer. And it is, that many prayers are offered up for ourselves and others. It is quite often that someone outside of the church will come and ask a Christian or ask the church to pray for them. This is mostly found in times of tragedy, sickness, and distress. They only see that they need prayer in such times. Unfortunately, they really don't care if you pray for them after the initial shock and event. For when life levels out, they don't need God nor the prayers of the saints anymore. In this portion of Scripture of Jeremiah, we see the great tragedy that has befallen Judah. Israel has been carried away by the Assyrians. And now it is Judahs turn because of their continued sin and disobedience. They are at the point of being carried away into captivity just as God had forewarned them. In a previous chapter, Jeremiah 39, Babylonian soliders enter Jerusaleum and King Zedekiah flees but is captured. The thing to note of this is that Jeremiah had forewarned him of all this. All the destruction of Jerusaleum, the losing of his two eyes that Nebuchadnezzar put out and the killing of his sons in front of his eyes could have been avoided. But he would not listen to the word of the Lord. It is much the same today. Now what we find is that most, I believe, are ignorant of the full Gospel. Yes, many, upwards towards 90 to 99% of all people say, 'I believe in God'. Well, the devils believe God also, but that does not make them saved or children of God. They only know of God's existence and a vague understanding of Who He is. Even in the churches, we find God's Own people know so very little of Who He is, what He has done or can do. With this ignorance, their knowledge of God's promises and directives on prayer are mostly in error and left undone and untouched. This is one of the reasons Satan is ruling, reigning and destroying so many lives today. The statement, 'Pray for us' is their only words of religious rhetoric. they don't know what else to do or say. It is a coined phrase that they have heard and been taught by religionists. They don't pray for themselves nor do they know how to pray effectively for others. Worst of all, they don't the God to whom they are praying. They are left to ask for prayers from someone who does know God and does know how to pray. It is not their desire to correct these wrong, they simply out of selfish desire want what they are asking prayer for. It has nothing to do with the glory of God, it is all about self. How vain the words are, 'I will pray for you'; and that is the closest they will get to actually praying. They say the words, but they never do the action of praying. We see this delusion of prayer filtering further and further into the church. We have almost got to the point that all you have to do is think the words and it covers the actual deed of doing it. We read of the dilema here in Jeremiah and they are coming to the one prophet that we know of that spoke for God throughout the good times and now the bad times. It seems Jeremiah was the voice of God leading the people to repent before it was too late. Alas, but they would not obey Him. And now they come to Jeremiah, for He was a man of God, and they ask him to 'pray for them'. And they are really asking, 'What is the will of the Lord?'; in other words, 'What should we do?' As Jeremiah prays, he is talking to God, but God is going to talk to him. The mindset of many is fly into the presence of a holy God, bark your demands and requests and run away as fast you came. This is not prayer. the effectiveness of prayer is the two way conversation. As you speak to the Father of His glory, promises, confessions, supplications, petitions, and intercession. The confidence of faith is leading that not only has God heard, but He is able and willing to answer 'abundantly above all that we can ask or think'. God many times, gives the affirmation to our faith, 'I have heard you. And in My time and according to My will, I will answer the desires of your heart.' continue. . .