Text: Genesis 14: 1-16
Key Verse: "He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and
his possessions, together with the women and the other people" (Genesis 14:16).
The Holy Spirit would drive
one thing home to our hearts through Abram's experiences in this passage. We do
not lead our Christian lives in isolated seclusion - we are members of one another
and in circumstances of this nature, one Christian can often be the means of
deliverance of a weaker brother or sister. There was nothing Abram could do to
deliver Lot from Sodom. Sodom represented an inward choice in Lot's heart to
live in the materialistic, sensualized atmosphere of Sodom.
If a child of God chooses
to be materialistic, sensual, commercial, and greedy for things of the world,
not much can be done for him or her. Only Lot could take himself out of Sodom.
But from this circumstance that threatened Lot's very life and liberty, Abram's
resources were amply sufficient through prayer.
James 5:16b tells
us, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. There is
a Chinese translation of that verse that is excellent: The earnest,
hot-hearted prayer of a righteous man releases great power. That is
certainly the case in this incident.
The prayer offered in
faith, we are told in the same chapter of James, will make the sick
person well; the Lord will raise him up (James 5:15). Many have been
puzzled by this verse, but if we read the context, we see clearly that the
affliction here is one that has arisen because a child of God has become
involved in deliberate sin. Such a one is to call the elders of the church
together and confess his or her faults, and then the prayer of faith will save
the sick, and the Lord shall raise him or her up again. It is a wonderful
experience, this power of prayer for someone else.
The history of the church
is replete with instances of such deliverance through faithful prayer. A wise and experienced missionary leader, speaking to a group on the subject of
prayer, addressed the matter of overwhelming sin that so grips the heart as to
enslave the life and frustrate all activity for God. He gave some very wise
words of advice. Perhaps some younger Christian, he said, may find
himself in such a circumstance, and the thing he is doing is so shameful that
he cannot bring himself to confess it publicly; then let him seek out some
older man of God, someone he can trust, and lay the whole matter before him and
ask him to pray concerning this.
It is wise counsel, indeed.
When Lot could not possibly help himself, Abram, separated in heart from the
Sodom-like attitudes that rendered Lot so powerless, was able to lay hold of
God and affect a great and mighty deliverance.
As Christian we ought to bear one another's burden and see the need to pray for one another if we find ourselves in a position we can barely do anything.
** Culled from www.raystedman.org **
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