I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints. Philemon 4-5
There’s lots of talk today about preventive medicine — keeping people healthy rather than merely taking care of them when they’re sick. Paul here models not preventive medicine, but preventive ministry when he says to Philemon, ‘Hearing that your family’s walking with the Lord and that there’s a church in your house causes me to pray for you constantly.’
We generally only pray for people when we hear they’re sick or struggling, going through tough trials or facing hard times. And pray we must. But in addition to that, I suggest we pray like Paul. I suggest we pray for those who are doing well that they might do even better.
It’s when the enemy sees people doing well that he decides to launch an attack against them. Why? He knows he’s lost their souls, but if he can pull them down in depression or discouragement, he knows they’ll be unable to impact others whose souls he’s not yet lost. Satan doesn’t spend his time on the lost. You will never read in the New Testament where Satan himself is warring against an unbeliever. He saves himself totally and exclusively for those who are in Christ, for those who are walking with God. In every instance where you see Satan in the New Testament, you will always see him coming against believers in order to minimize their effectiveness for the Kingdom.
This makes it all the more important for us to pray for those doing well, for they are sure targets of the enemy.
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