Question: when you pray for other people, what does your look like, what does it consist of? And, why are you praying for them in the first place? Why do we pray for others?
We are told all the time that prayer is powerful. Many people, myself included, have seen the power of prayer at work. And people, where they see themselves as a follower of Christ, or religious, still see value in prayer. Why is that? I believe it is because prayer is powerful. And, I believe that when we pray we set into motion the divine – we partner with God in His plan as we seek His heart. For it is through prayer that we can seek above all else, the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness – for ourselves, and others.
The way we pray for ourselves is different than the way we pray for others. Lately I have been reflecting on my prayer life and more specifically, how I pray for others. There is usually three different reasons that we would be praying for someone else. Now, I fully realize that there is not just three reasons why we pray for others, but I do believe there are three main reasons why we do pray for others.
Reason #1: we pray because they ask – they share a need in their life and they ask for prayer. Reason #2: pray because we see a need in their life – we see a physical problem or a hard emotional situation they are facing and we offer to prayer. Reason #3: we pray because we want something about them to change – face it, we can focus on a negative thing about them and pray for change and we can pray for conviction over a hurt someone has caused, etc. There could be a lot more reasons why we pray for others, but these are three basic and main reasons we choose to pray for others.
I think how we choose to pray for others is important. What I think is even more important for us to get is to understand how Jesus would be pray for them. How are we using our opportunities to pray for others? The scripture that got me thinking about my attitude of prayer towards others is in Ephesians.
“I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power.” (Ephesians 1:18-19, NLT)
Warren Wiersbe said, “The same resurrection power that saved us and took us out fo the graveyard of sin can daily help us to live for Christ and glorify him.” Now I don’t want to be a person putting words into the mouth of Jesus – but if we are wanting to be like Jesus and to live out His truth and power then we have to choose to pray for others like Christ would and to this end, to understand the incredible greatness of God’s power.
reflections of hope 