They stand near small tea shops or walk aimlessly around the streets of Tenkari, India. They eat when someone gives them food and wear whatever old clothes are given to them. They sleep on other people’s verandahs or in old ruined buildings with no mats to lie on, no pillows for their heads, and no blankets to cover them on cold nights. They have no place to wash.

Who are they? They are destitute women who were once good wives and mothers. Many are from very poor families who lived a hand-to-mouth existence even before the death of their husbands. Now they have nothing and nowhere to live.

Some are on the streets because their children have moved away or are so poor themselves that they have nothing to give to their mothers. Others have been expelled from their homes because their daughters-in-law do not wish to share their food or homes with old mothers-in-law who have nothing to give in return.

To find out more about this project head over to the Charis projects page.

4. Prayer shapes us into a more loving person.

Prayer, simply as a regular exercise, has a wonderful effect in focussing us on others and their welfare. It helps us break out of the tiny orbit of self preoccupation and think about others. We become more familiar with their challenges and needs. We start to widen our perspective and become more compassionate. If this was the only benefit of prayer it would be worth it. Our nature and fallen world dictate that we need a practical method to get off ourselves. Prayer provides that method by forcing our attention away from ourselves.

5. The best prayer we can pray for others is one for their highest welfare, which is always an increased awareness and confidence in God.

Once we’re engaged in the business of praying for others, our petitions need to be aimed in the right direction. Our requests to God for others express our desire for their welfare. Simply, we want good for them. But more importantly, we should want their ultimate good. So while we may ask for the alleviation of suffering or the provision of some material desire, the real thing people need is greater confidence in God that will act as a supply for their true needs in all of life.

Crump makes this point:

“New Testament petition has a laser-like focus on the things that matter for eternity. Physical health is temporary. No one evades decrepitude or the grim reaper indefinitely, but prayerfully cultivating a grace-filled life in the face of disappointment, pain, and mortality reaps a harvest of eternal fruit that will feed more hungry souls than we can ever imagine, in more ways than we will ever know this side of paradise.”

This doesn’t mean we don’t care about the agony people have in life or temporal needs and desires. We will pray for these things because we love people and want to see them blessed in every way possible. But our great aim is to see people find ultimate good and that’s where our best energy should be directed.

Again, Crump:

Ultimately, only the heavenly minded can be of any earthly good. The universe is our Father’s good creation, but it is a distorted product, a cosmos groaning, waiting for release. Its final redemption occurs in a great conflagration. This world is not our final home. There is a tension here to be tightly grasped. Biblical eschatology never demands that we ignore life’s injustices or withdraw from its painful realities. Loved ones will die, and we are right to grieve. Tragedy strikes, and we ought to pray for God’s deliverance while doing everything we can to bring relief. Biblical eschatology does, however, require God’s people to radically reprioritize their passions. Though we live in this world, any prayer life preoccupied with the concerns of this world is a life that has lost its way.

Knowing Christ and being conformed to His image is our ultimate good, and our best prayer for others. As Crump says, “Perhaps the greatest gift we can offer anyone is the prayer we make for their encouragement, guidance, patience, faith, peace of mind, conviction, repentance, or spiritual renewal.”