“And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends” (Job 42:10).
“Dear Lord, I…and me…and mine…” Of course it’s wise and needful to pray honestly for ourselves. But may the Lord enlarge our field of vision to include those around us. Many have never heard their names addressed to God in prayer; but what a powerful thing!
Billy Bray, a drunkard Cornish coal miner, was gloriously saved. Though he is virtually unknown today, my copy of his biography by F.W. Bourne is the forty-first edition! Just after his salvation, he asked his hardened miner crew if he might pray before descending into the mine. “I would pray in what people call simple language, but as, I hope, the Lord would have me. ‘Lord, if any of us must be killed today, let it be me; let not one of these men die today, for they are not happy; but I am, and if I die today I shall go to heaven.’ When I rose from my knees, I would see the tears running down their faces; and soon after some of them became praying men, too.”