No one ever prayed for me.
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).
George Müller was a remarkable man of faith. The orphanages he established were sustained and flourished on the basis of a simple trust in God and a belief that God would answer prayer. After his conversion he made it his business to pray for the salvation of ten of his friends. Throughout his life, these friends came, one by one, to trust in Christ. At the end of his life, George Müller was still praying for the last two of these friends. Just before his death, one more opened his heart to the Saviour. The final friend was converted shortly after his death. Müller had prayed for them for 40 years!
It has always impressed me that this man of God, amid all the responsibility he had for a considerable and demanding ministry, never forgot to pray for his friends. He took upon himself the obligation to pray for their salvation.
A Christian friend of mine used to visit his local market every week. He got talking to one of the stallholders and asked him how his business was doing. The man told him his business was failing, and sadly he was going to close it. My friend asked the man if he would like him to pray for him. To his surprise, the man agreed – and the brother simply committed him to the Lord. Afterwards, the man said to him, “No one has prayed for me before.” It made me wonder how many people would say the same thing.
We see in the Lord’s ministry a love which reached out to all people in all circumstances. It was a focussed love. Sometimes He drew people to Himself, like Nicodemus (John 3). At other times He went to places to find people, like the woman at Sychar’s well (John 4). He looked over vast crowds, and in compassion saw them as sheep not having a shepherd. But he knew and held in his heart every single person in those large companies.
I have told the story many times of a visit to a friend’s farm. He took me one morning into a huge barn. Inside were well over a hundred sheep. I stood beside my friend as he looked over his flock. Then he began to walk through the sheep and took hold of one of them and gave it an injection before letting it re-join his friends. To me, all the sheep were the same. But my friend, a shepherd, knew every sheep in his flock, and was able to address the needs of each one. That morning I learnt about the character and ability of a shepherd.
But the Lord Jesus also teaches us about the shepherd finding the lost sheep. For this ministry, we think of the work of evangelists, whether preaching the Gospel publicly like Philip did in Samaria, or communicating it personally as he did to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8). We can feel inadequate in both styles of ministry. But there is one ministry we can all take responsibility for, and it is focussed on people we know. Throughout lockdown, we have had the opportunity to get to know our neighbours a lot better. These are people close to us, people we can pray for, and who might say, “No one has prayed for me before.” The Lord’s ministry in glory is a ministry of intercession. The Holy Spirit’s ministry on earth is one of intercession. These are vital ministries.
We can intercede for people in prayer. Today is a good day to make a list of friends and neighbours and to commit to bringing them to the throne of grace. We can ask, in faith, for the Lord Jesus to give us opportunities to share our faith in Him, and to move in their hearts to lead them to Himself.
