BLESSED EXHORTATIONS (PART 14)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

Hebrews 13:18-19

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Chapter 13 of Hebrews, the final chapter of this letter to the Hebrew Christians is chock full of exhortations, enough to form a wonderful series to engage in over the past two weeks.

Today, we conclude with a call to prayer. Look again at these words from verses 18 and 19:

Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

Through these words, it’s obvious the writer of Hebrews, a fellow Jewish Christian, was in company with others who were known to his audience and after providing all the previous direction and guidance for his readers to carry on in the work of Jesus with a firm focus on Him and the God who sent Him to save, the author asks for prayer for himself and others.

What did he pray for?

Well, it wasn’t for anything material. That’s the first thing that jumps out to me. He didn’t ask for money or a better place to live or prestige or food to eat. No, he starts out by simply asking to be lifted up before God so he and the others could “have a clear conscience” which simply means that they could stand before God in confidence that the way they served and lived before Him was pleasing to His sight for their chief desire was to “live honorably in every way”.

Friends, I believe this blessed exhortation is for all of us here in the 21st century, as much as it was for the first century Jewish Christians who received this letter. All we need to do is carry it out.

Let’s pray for one another daily, asking for the “clear conscience” that comes from living right and righteously before the God who is our Maker and Master.

Let us ask for the leading of the Holy Spirit to make us holy as our God is holy, ever seeking to be more like our Savior Jesus, the only person who has ever lived a perfectly holy life.

And let’s pray for one another with the hope that we will live “honorably” before the Lord “in every way”.

For if we do this, if we ask God to answer the prayers for ourselves and one another, then we can experience first-hand the wonder of His presence and influence as He takes us by the hand and guides us in His ways.

The final blessed exhortation in this series is to just pray for one another. Let’s get to work doing just that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.