LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 105

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“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each
other.” What an absolute treasure and gift it is that
Jesus uses sinners like you and me to do His holy work
here on earth.
Remember that when you feel guilty, weak or defeated,
our Lord forgives, redeems, cleanses and hallows.
When your prayers are reduced to sighs, Jesus does it
all, and does it to you, giving His righteousness to you
for free. Then you are free to be whom He has called you
to be and do what He has given you to do. “Likewise the
Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know
what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words”
(Rom. 8:26).
We have a great comfort for our troubled conscience
knowing that Jesus is praying for us too. Yes, that is
right, Jesus is praying for you. The Holy Spirit is praying
for you. Your heavenly Father is listening for you. Jesus
is calling to you. The redeemed are given special access
to the Father through the Son. The Holy Spirit is
advocating for you. All so that your heavenly Father can
love you and give you His very best. “He who did not
spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will
he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
(Rom. 8:32).
THE PRIVILIGE OF PRAYING WITH AND FOR YOUR
SPOUSE
My wife Kristin and I have learned that often prayer is
learning to let go our own expectations, trusting and
believing that the Lord’s plan is always the perfect one.
When I met my wife, Kristin, she had been raised as a
Jehovah’s Witness. After our second date, I wanted to
break it off because my prayer was to marry a Christian
woman. God heard that prayer and shortly thereafter
called Kristin to the saving waters of Holy Baptism. She
is now a faithful, God-fearing Lutheran teacher in our
day school. Now, we daily pray for our children, for
their future, and ask that the Lord would guide them
and whoever or whatever it is that the Lord has in store
for them. We have adopted Jer. 29:11 as a Bible passage
that often guides our ways.
Married couples have told me that one of the best
things about my pre-marriage class is that I not only
encourage the newlyweds to pray for each other, but I
teach them how to pray with each other. Listening and
hearing your spouse, friend or loved one physically
praying for you is a tremendous gift to the troubled
soul.
Prayer is a perfect example of — gift given, gift
received, and gift used well — in love for God and
Convention Essays

service to others. “And you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is
this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is
no other commandment greater than these” (Mark
12:30–31).
Prayer should never be done out of pure obligation. We
do not want to bully someone into prayer, for prayer it
is meant to be a joyful privilege. Yet prayer must never
be neglected, as it is a missed opportunity to receive the
miracles that Christ has in store for you and your loved
ones.
Prayer is the great equalizer for we have all sinned and
fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Prayer is a
joyful reminder that you and I are a child of God and
that we are an important part of His eternal family!
PRAYER IS THE JOY OF BEING HEARD
A few years ago, I had a faithful lifelong member who
lost his son in a tragic farm accident. The father was
about retirement age and he kept asking me “why
would God allow this to happen?”
I could not say anything that would bring this man’s
son back, and I could not do anything to relieve his
pain. Yet, later, he told me that he found great comfort
in the prayers of the faithful. When the tears were
flowing for all the possibilities of the things that could
have been, the best thing I could do was pray with him.
For, in prayer, I was able to point him to Christ and
remind him that both he and his son were in the loving
arms of Jesus. My prayer was that the Lord would
strengthen him in the midst of things we cannot
understand.
What better way to point our loved ones to Christ, and
the gift of His salvation, than to pray with them? What
a joy and pleasure it was to bring the Gospel of Jesus
Christ to a man who was completely broken, feeling
alone and unloved. What a joyful reminder to all of us
that the Lord always hears our prayers and blesses the
one who comes to Him prayer. 3
To “pray without ceasing” means you have an
opportunity to pray in all situations. It’s just what
Christian do! It’s just who Christians are! We find great
joy in knowing our prayers are heard.
Now I, like most of you, have several family members
who are not Christian and have fallen from the faith.
What a joy it is to know that Jesus hears our prayers for
the lost. What a privilege we have in continuing to pray
that our loved ones will one day also feel and see the
measure of Jesus’ love. Luther reminds us in the Small
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 105