Pray For Others as You Pray For Yourself

“O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” (Ps 25:2-3 AV)

David does an interesting and noble thing here.  Even though he is going through a rough time, he does not forget to pray for others who may be going through an equally hard time.  This is actually therapeutic.  If, when we are troubled, we think of the needs of others, ours don’t seem and bad as we once thought.  Now, no doubt, ours are real and serious.  However, there are others out there who are equally troubled and who might just as desperately need the prayers of the saints as well.

Anyone who has had to spend some time at the hospital can understand this.  We are assigned a room and often that room comes with a roommate.  This roommate may or may not have a more serious issue than we.  However, as we come to understand their problems we suddenly feel as though our burden is a little easier to bear.  In fact, that door swings both ways.  As our roommate understands our problem, he too might begin to feel a slight improvement.  It really has nothing to do with a physical change in our prognosis.  The simple fact that someone else understands and cares is enough to ease, if even so slightly, our burden.  And by taking on the burden of another, in a strange and miraculous way, it eases our ever so slightly.

So, when we pray earnestly for our own needs, these burdens will lighten if we also include the burdens of others.  If we dawn the garment of self-centeredness and also remember that others have equally or worse situations, then ours may not seem so heavy that we cannot bear through it.  Pray for others as we pray for ourselves!