Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. -- 2 Corinthians 1:3,4,10,11

Long before we know we will ever need the comfort, God often gives us the assurance of His provision by giving us examples of how He has sustained others through difficult times. For example, God can introduce us to a family with a child who has handicaps, and show us the love and wonder in his life, years before we give birth to or adopt a handicapped child. Many times God will comfort us in advance of our need, and when we look back we receive the consolation that God has worked in the past to prepare us for the present.

Sometimes God will work good in our lives through other people's difficulties. We have not caused their problems, but God brings good into our lives by allowing us to observe the good He brings to them in their afflictions. Remembering God's gracious love given to others will inspire us to trust in God at all times. Then, in our afflictions, we can demonstrate God's consolation and God will work good in someone else's life as well as our own. God can introduce us to a person who has overcome a great challenge or a particular temptation long before we will face a similar challenge or test so we will know what God's faithfulness and our obedience can bring in a time of trial. Sometimes God will teach us how to pray by showing us how others have prayed and He has provided. At other times, God expects us to pray for those in need and see our prayers answered so we will learn how to pray in later times of need.

One Sunday afternoon a young American soldier visited the Schaeffers in their Swiss home. Their conversation turned to a pastor in Zurich that the young man knew personally, but the Schaeffers had never met. The pastor, who had a young family, had been voted out of his church for emphasizing God's grace and some essential Biblical teachings. At first, the pastor had tried some secular jobs to support his family, but God led him back into teaching the Bible in homes, traveling to other countries to preach, and supporting his family by faith through prayer. As they discussed this pastor and his problems, they answered a knock at the door and there stood this very pastor. The pastor spoke German and the American soldier interpreted so the Schaeffers could understand. Without God's perfect timing, the Schaeffers would have had great difficulty in understanding their unexpected guest or talking with him about all that needed to be said in a short period of time.

God orchestrated this encounter to help the pastor from Zurich, who needed to know that there were many others who still believed as he did, and to impress upon the Schaeffers how He could provide for a pastor and his family if they took a stand for God and truth in spite of the cost. God's teaching the Schaeffers about courage, obedience, and prayer through this man made such an impression upon Edith that when she wrote home she asked people to pray for him. Years before they would ever need this lesson and the comfort it would bring in a time of uncertainty and trial, God brought this pastor to the Schaeffers' home to teach them more about the power of prayer.

When we think carefully about God's going before us in our own lives, we may remember similar instances of God's provision of comfort and guidance in advance. We can take comfort from God's faithfulness to the Apostle Paul and the early martyrs in meeting their needs, but God will also teach us from the lives of our contemporaries. Just as the Schaeffers learned from others, they can be contemporary examples for us regarding effective prayer and trying to do practical things to help others.

The Schaeffer family eventually decided to live by prayer and faith alone in 1955, because they faced continuing conflict in their denomination over Fran's teaching on sanctification and some other theological questions. The mission board cut their meager missionary salary, so they had to decide whether they would continue their missionary work as a venture of faith, go back to America, or do something else with their lives. In 1949, six years before they founded L'Abri in the midst of a crisis, God demonstrated to them through a Zurich pastor that He could provide for their needs and the needs of others simply through prayer and doing the work that He wanted done. Our God is a good and gracious Master who takes care of His servants by anticipating their needs, whatever they may be.

As we speak to others, whether they are Christians or not, God will teach us valuable lessons. Some of these lessons will be for the future. We need to pray for nonbelievers to receive the truths we share, and also for God to teach us what He wants us to learn from and through them. As we talk to believers who have suffered for their faith or who have faced severe health or financial problems, we need to learn from them all we can about God's faithfulness and His answers to prayer. If we never face similar afflictions, if we prepare ourselves to serve God according to His leading, we will be able to help some by telling them inspirational stories of God's faithfulness to others. As we pray for opportunities to tell others about God, we need to look for God to answer us in ways that will involve far more than simply telling them some theological facts or quoting some Bible verses. In every case, we need to pray for God's Holy Spirit to show us what to share and how, and make our testimony effective.

Edith asked others to pray for their new friend in the ministry, and the Schaeffers learned to depend on the prayers of many people to help them do their work. They did not take the prayers of others for granted, but praised God that others who lived far away could enter into their work with them through prayer. We will never rise above the need for the prayers of others, and our prayers for others will benefit them in more ways than just giving them a psychological lift. Our prayers will often free God's hand to work in their lives according to the principles He has established when people pray.

The Apostle Paul wrote that he depended upon the prayers of the Corinthians, and that their prayers had delivered him on many occasions. When we ask others to pray for us, we need to encourage them by telling them how God has heard their prayers in our times of need. Paul did this to encourage the Corinthians to keep on praying, and we can do the same today. If we stop and appreciate what God is doing in our work, we will praise Him before others and that will motivate them to keep constant in prayer and look for more opportunities to intercede for others.

PRAYER

Dear Jesus, help me learn all I can about you by observing your work in the lives of others as well as my own. I praise you for being unchanging and always consistent, so I can see how you apply the principles and promises I have learned from your Word in the lives of others. In every case where I suffer, help me to bring great blessing to others by showing them the power of your work in my life in the midst of tribulation. Amen.

© Copyright L. G. Parkhurst, Jr. Revised Edition 2008
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