Romans 10:1

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved." (Romans 10:1)

What a touching statement of intercession. The spirit of intercession should follow us wherever we go. Even though Israel rejected the true gospel, the author of Romans never gave up on them. He stills prays to God for their Salvation. This serves as a reminder for ourselves to notice our surrounding, to intercede for those not so wonderful members around us.

Usually our notion of dealing with someone not so 'churchy' is to keep a mental distance. We may be nice to them on the surface, but once we turn our backs, they may come up as a topic of discussion. How lazy someone is at church, how they never help out with anything and only knows how to complain. "Who does he think he is always preaching to others, but never does what he preaches." "Those sisters, all they can do is gossip, gossip, and gossip"....and the criticisms go on.

How often do we hear 'we should pray for them' after those criticisms? Doesn't it become gossip if we had no intent of trying to help them? When we say we should pray for the church to grow, do we never think that the church is composed of each individual member? Therefore, for the church to progress, each one of us must also improve. Those sitting in our surrounding pews may not be model Christians just as we sometime fail to be, but they are part of the Body of Christ just as we are. For the Body of Christ to be fully functional, each member must do its part. If one part fails, the whole Body cannot function properly. Therefore, the failure of one member is the imperfection of the whole Body. For the Body to be perfect again, that imperfection must be made perfect.

There are a few ways of potentially perfecting the Body...or destroying it further. One would be to wait for the member to realize its own imperfection while the others grumble over the fault of that member. This would lead to a disconcerted bunch of unhappy members, which would bring about more imperfect members. Another way would be to patiently wait for the imperfect member to perfect itself. The best way would be for all the other members to help the imperfect member back on its feet.

If the first way were to be taken, the result would be a totally dysfunctional Body. The imperfection will spread from one to the next because of the criticism each has on another. Ultimately, nothing will be resolved and the Body will be worse off than before. If the other members were to wait for the imperfect member to realize its hindrance on the whole Body, how long would they have to wait? What if the imperfect member never thought it was imperfect? The problem may never be resolved. If all the members would pray for that one imperfect member, the result will be picture perfect. The imperfect member won't have to receive harsh criticisms from its fellow members. It wouldn't have to live in total oblivion of its imperfection. The whole Body would be perfected in no time, because 'where two or three are gathered together in [God's] name, [He is] there in the midst of them' (Mt. 18:20). God will hear our prayers because our goal is to be the perfect Body of Christ for His glory.

Instead of criticisms, we should strive to pray for those who are lacking. Instead of thinking ill of the proud, we should pray for God's mercy to shower upon them. Instead of labeling someone a 'non-zealous member', we should pray for their return to God's calling. Instead of spreading the family problems of others, we should show our love toward them and pray for God to comfort their hearts. Instead of calling someone incapable, we should ask God to strengthen them. Instead of giving up on someone, we should pray for God's love to touch their spirit. We are but one member of the Body of Christ, but if we start to do our part in intercession, others will follow. Just as the bad virus spreads, the love we have for the souls of others will also spread, for the better.