James 4:2c, "You do not have because you do not ask God."
James 5:16b, "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."
God decided to take His friend Abraham into His confidence and tell Abraham of His plans to destroy the wicked city of Sodom. Abraham's nephew Lot and his family had moved into that city and were living there. Abraham's concern for Lot prompted him to pray the first intercessory prayer recorded in Scripture. His plea was based on God's justice, with the hope that God would not destroy the righteous with the wicked. He asked God to spare Sodom if fifty righteous people were found in it, and God agreed to do that. Notice Abraham's courage as he continues to lower the necessary number of righteous people in Sodom to forty five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, and then ten. As long as Abraham prayed, God answered affirmatively.
What a tragedy that there weren't even ten righteous people to be found in Sodom. This does not speak well for Lot's influence in the city. What was Lot thinking anyway when he moved his family into such a wicked place? Were it not for Abraham's intercession, Lot and his wife and daughters would probably have been killed along with everyone else when the city was destroyed.
God did more than answer Abraham's prayers. He spared Lot and his family in spite of the fact that there weren't ten righteous people in the city. Many times God, in His wisdom and love, gives us even better answers to our prayers than we have asked.
We are probably more like Christ when we are praying for others than any other time, because Jesus is presently interceding for us in heaven. God has warned us that He is going to judge this world as He judged Sodom. We stand in the place where Abraham stood--in the place of intercession for those we love. Remember, God kept answering as long as Abraham kept asking. Will you keep praying?
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