God Is Watching Over in Praying for Others

Have you ever thought of neglecting to pray for others as a sin? When the prophet Samuel was committing the people of Israel to their new king, Saul, for whom they had implored the Lord, Samuel’s charge to them was this:

“As for me, God forbid that I should SIN AGAINST THE LORD in ceasing to pray for you, and I will show you the good and the right way.” 1 Samuel 12:23.

The people of Israel had clamored for a king so they could be like all the other peoples around them. This clamor did not please the Lord, their true King, nor did it please Samuel, God’s prophet. 

Therefore in the moment of committing the people to their king, Samuel actually told them that God declared that Israel had sinned in asking for a king, because it represented a rejection of God as their true King. In Samuel’s distress and anger, knowing the people were on a collision course with God’s best will for them, he still vowed to never fail to pray for them! 

As I pondered this kind of commitment and love to God’s people on the part of Samuel, I considered my own temptations to fail to persevere in prayer for those people the Lord has called me to intercede for. I was brought to repentance for that kind of neglect, and had to confess that sin of omission to the Lord, asking Him to please give me other opportunities to pray for those people, and to never fail in that commitment. As God, our King, watches over us to call us to prayer for those in any kind of need, may we take that call seriously by “never ceasing to pray.” 

By Mary Fawcett