While living in Memphis, I had the pleasure of meeting a guy whose smile lit up the room. He’s the kind of person that always leaves you feeling better after talking with him. He is a gifted athlete and played professional basketball. Any smart dad would want their son to be like him, so you know I took my son to meet him.
After we talked, he invited us to come to watch him play. You know we were excited, but when he told us he would see that we got passes allowing us to watch games free we were thrilled. So you can imagine how I felt when I came to the “Will Call” window to get our passes, and discovered the passes also gave us permission to sit on the court behind the goal and be able to meet the players in their locker room! Wow!
All of this because a kind man graciously went out of his way and spoke to a key person on our behalf. He spoke for us and on his word alone, someone granted passes for my son and me. His name? Quinton Lytle. Quinton is the Director of Church and Ministry Relations at Downline Ministries based in Memphis, Tennessee. 1
Do you know anyone like him—someone with influence who will stand up and speak for you?
You do if someone you know is praying for you!
Is someone praying for you?
I’ve asked people if I could pray for them and rarely has anyone said, “No.” Virtually everyone is glad to have someone pray for them. Even those who don’t believe in prayer, are grateful to know someone cares enough for them to remember them in their prayers.
Who is praying for you?
I am so grateful for every friend who loves me enough to pray for me. Surely, most parents have interceded before God on behalf of their children. For many years, I had a mother who cried out to God for me.
Only God knows the heartache I was spared and the blessings I have received because of my mother’s prayers. When she died, I felt vulnerable because she was no longer standing in the gap for me.
It was then I realized what a woman of prayer my wife is. While I was grieving, Debbie was praying. She has prayed for me since she has known me and even after many years together, she still tells me every day, “I love you and I’m praying for you!” I can’t tell you how much this means to me.
You may not know who is praying for you, but someone is likely talking to God about you.
There have been many people who never knew I was praying for them. But that didn’t stop God from hearing and often answering my prayers. One day, you may be surprised to find you were the focus of someone’s prayers.
We all need someone to stand in the gap for us before God. Here are seven things that describe the type of person we need praying for us:
• They love God
• They know God
• They are right with God
• They know what God desires
• They have strong faith
• They are faithful to pray
• They love us
This is the kind of friend we all need. Where can we find a friend like this?
There are people like this everywhere. It should be of no surprise that people like this gather with a group of other Christ-followers called a church. They are constantly learning about God and adjusting their lives to His direction. Rather than simply being religious, they aren’t content with checking off boxes and keeping up appearances, they want to join God in His work. So, they pray.
Let me tell you about Someone who loves you and wants to pray for you. I know of no one whom I would rather pray for me than Him. You already know He loves God, knows God, is right with God, knows God’s will, has a strong faith, is faithful to pray, and loves us.
Still don’t know Who it is?
The One Who loves you more than anyone and wants to intercede constantly for you is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He came to this earth for you and me. Before He went to the cross, He prayed for His first followers (Jn. 17:6-19) and He prayed for all of us who would believe because of them (Jn. 17:20-26).
Isaiah tells us He “poured out His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors (Is. 53:12).
Who are the “transgressors”? You and me!
He stood in our place and took the judgment that we deserved. He interceded on our behalf.
Today, He is still standing in the gap, ready to forgive.
“He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because he always lives to intercede for them (Heb. 7:25).
Once you cry out to God through Jesus and in faith surrender to Him, He will save you and will never stop speaking to the Father on your behalf.
But what about the times we sin?
He is still standing for us.
What about those who would point out all our failings?
In Romans 8, Paul asks a rhetorical question:
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us (Ro. 8:33-34).
If you have realized that like all mankind, you are unworthy to stand before God and can do nothing to remove the guilt of your sin, then you are on the right track (Ro. 3:23, 6:23).
And if you wholeheartedly and unashamedly believe God sent His Son to die on your behalf and that He rose from the dead, you will be saved (Ro. 5:8, 10:9-10).
We all need a friend. We all need encouragement. And we all need someone who loves us and is close to God to pray for us. We need Someone with influence to stand up and speak for us.
The One we all need is Jesus. 2
_________
1. Quinton Lytle is a former Western Carolina men’s basketball player and member of McDonald’s All-America Team and played professionally with the Memphis Rockers. Quintin is married to Carla and they are the proud parents of eight wonderful children and are building their family on the biblical design of discipleship. Quinton currently serves as Director of Church and Ministry Relations at Downline Ministries based in Memphis, TN.
2. There is one God and one mediator so that human beings can reach God. That way is through Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5 The Everyday Bible: New Century Version (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005).