Have You Considered Praying for Someone Other than Yourself?

Job 42:9-10  "So Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job.  And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before."

 What a tremendous statement we find here in our scripture today.  In Job 42:10, the Bible says, "and the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends."  Job was no doubt an amazing man who had a great amount of faith and trust in God.  He went through the fire.  Trial after trial that he went through, and yet never was his faith rattled by those trials.  It seems to me that answer to ending those trials came when Job stopped focusing on himself and started to notice the need of his friends around him. 

I remember the first time I noticed this phrase at the end of the book of Job.  It just jumped off the page at me.  Job's captivity was turned, when he prayed for his friends, wow.  I was simply amazed.  Maybe we need to apply this principle to our own lives.  Instead of focusing on everything wrong in our own life, maybe we should take a moment and consider praying for someone else other than ourselves.  Learn the compassion of praying for someone.  Our friends need our prayers, they need our compassion. Pray for them.