I Thessalonians 2:18
“For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, more than once—and yet Satan hindered us.”
This is day four on this verse. I intended to conclude last time. However, I feel I got some answers. Last entry focused on spiritual warfare. I posed the question, “How do we know the difference between a closed door (from The Lord) and satanic interference?” I commented that we can’t know for sure. Some circumstances arose yesterday that brought some clarity.
I’m involved in a ministry that is intended to bring relief to those in distress. My supervisor commented about praying for her clients. That helped with the answer. I could be praying much more. These show up with their lives in chaos. There is much spiritual warfare going on. I need to pray for them. Without getting into specifics, one of my clients yesterday could have used my prayer support.
The Lord will bring to mind people to pray for. We need to be persistent in doing so. It’s easy to lose this over time. The natural course is “Out of sight, out of mind”. That in itself could be part of the warfare. Matthew 13:19 Jesus refers to how the devil will remove the Word from our minds. He doesn’t want us praying for others. He would love to preoccupy us to get our minds off others.
How can we keep someone on our minds, even after times passes? I’m not good at this. However, I would say to keep a list. We should cycle through that list. Some we see more frequently. Those will be easier to recall. The ones we don’t see often will a struggle.
We can keep these people on our minds by checking in with them from time to time. We can reach out and ask how they are doing. We can comment on a common interest.
Lord, help us to pray for others. The Devil has negative designs on all of us. Help us to intercede for them.