“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16 (NIV)
Recently, my pastor started a new tradition in our church where, at the end of every Sunday service, we turn to our neighbor and ask for a prayer request. We do this, he explains, because we are a family of believers. That’s why when we pray, we are to say, “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9), because praying for others should be a big part of our daily prayer life.
Acts 2:42 says this about the early church: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Church isn’t about coming to service on Sunday, getting the word, and going home to continue to live as you’ve always lived, failing to apply that word to your life, and not seeing any of your fellow church members again until the next Sunday. Church is a community. We come together in fellowship, we learn together, we worship together, we eat together, and we pray together. Hebrews 10:25 instructs us not to give up “meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing,” but we should encourage each other, and I would include pray for each other, “and all the more as you see the Day [of Christ’s return] approaching.”
Some of the prayer requests I’ve received have included the salvation of family members, traveling mercies while on vacation, strength, wisdom, guidance, health, staying focused on doing God’s will—all great prayer requests, ones I was eager to oblige. Unfortunately, sometimes I get a little self-conscious. I hear the more experienced prayer warriors of our church crying out to God and speaking in tongues, and naturally being a shy and reserved person myself, I look at them and wonder: why can’t I pray like that; am I doing something wrong; is my faith lacking? Some days I can’t even pray for myself, how does God expect me to pray for others?
Then one day, at the end of service, the Holy Spirit led me to turn to the woman next to me and ask from her a very specific prayer request: Help me to pray for others.
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27 (NKJV)
Jesus did send us a Helper to be with us 24 hours a day (John 14:16), the Holy Spirit, and He knows exactly what we need to pray for when we can’t utter a word. So I ask the Holy Spirit for help when I don’t know how to pray for others, which is quite often.
The interesting thing about Romans 8:26-27 is that when I read these verses, my mind immediately goes to John 11, when Jesus is moved and deeply touched by the pain and sorrow of the sisters, Martha and Mary, and the Jews around them, caused by the death of their brother and His dear friend Lazarus. Twice He “groans in the spirit” (John 11:33, 38), and what follows is one of the most powerful prayers in the Bible:
“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I say this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” John 11:41-42
Through this specific prayer, the glory and power of God is revealed because Jesus brings Lazarus, a man who has been dead four days, and according to Martha, more than likely smelling by now (John 11:39), back to life. This is the effective and powerful prayer that James describes. It starts with praying, and not just praying, but praying consistently, praying for others, and especially praying God’s will. 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV) says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
When Jesus speaks this prayer, He has the confidence that God hears Him, because He is doing exactly what he was sent to do, not with the wrong motives (James 4:3), but so that the people around Him would see God’s glory and come to believe in Him (John 11:40,45).
This truly helps me when I struggle in praying for others, because I see the resulting power in God’s answer, I see what a consistent prayer life with God can do, and I see how important it is to intercede for my brothers and sisters, because when I do, they are brought back to life (either physically or spiritually), and those who are lost come to believe in the salvation that God offers through Jesus Christ. And that’s ultimately what we want, what God wants, for everyone to believe and be saved.
So we pray, for them.
God Bless.
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing to us the power that comes with prayer, that if we pray, and believe that we have received it, it will be ours. Forgive us for lacking in our faith, for not praying to you enough, for praying with the wrong motives and not for your will to be done. We don’t always know what to pray for, but we thank you for your Holy Spirit, who intercedes on our behalf. You said in your word that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people, so we ask your Holy Spirit for help and guidance when praying for others. And help us to pray without ceasing, for the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. This is your will for us in Christ Jesus, and it’s in His name we pray. Amen.
Sunday Morning Word 