We are being sent in the same manner Jesus was sent.
Have you noticed the only time it appears that Jesus was asking someone to pray for Him was when He asked His friends to watch over Him as He was struggling with the decision to die on the cross ? Even then, it appears He was asking for them to be alert to doing spiritual battle as distinct from just praying.
While we can readily find exhortations for us to talk with Father about our own needs and our own situations, and we can find exhortations for us to intercede for others, the only obvious instruction for us to seek the prayers of another is when we are sick we are to call for our elder (the one who watches over us) to give him the opportunity to pray for us.
Clearly love should cause us to pray for others, to empathize with their difficult times. We should discuss with the one who watches over us our areas of struggle. However, I notice that many of the requests for prayer I hear fall into one or both of two very dangerous categories: Expressions of self pity; or, Gossip. Moreover, many of them also are thinly veiled attempts to manipulate.
Jesus was very sensitive to hear Holy Spirit concerning the motives of people who came to Him. We also need to be. A frequently noted area of mis-understanding between husbands and wives arises from our failure to understand motives. When a spouse comes home from work complaining because people there have unreasonable expectations; or, when a spouse arrives home and hears a list of the petty irritations caused by the children; we need to understand whether we are hearing a request for help to fix a problem or simply an outpouring of emotions being processed.
Jesus was also very attentive to whose problem He was addressing. For example: When the woman who was caught in adultery was brought before Him, He first addressed the problem of her accusers. After that, He addressed her problem. He knew He could not solve her accusers issues by dealing with her problem and He could not solve her issues by dealing with her accusers.
It is very important for us to see both ourselves and others from God’s perspective.
His, thus Yours,
Stuart
His-Family 