Prayer: For Others

For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray  ©1995 by Discipleship Publications International and edited by Tom and Sheila Jones. This week’s post is excerpted and adapted from a chapter by Lavonia Drabot who is a women’s ministry leader in Charlotte NC.

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.  If he has sinned he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to each another and pray for each another so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (James 5:15-16).

In the dark.  On their knees.  Silently and aloud.  People have prayed for each of us-both before and after we became Christians.  God worked in those prayers to soften our hearts and expose our sin, to lead us to repentance.  Once we were forgiven and healed, we began to pray for others.  The cycle of intercessory prayer.  The multiplying principle.  Each one passes on the blessing he has received.  To intercede or pray on someone else’s behalf is a privilege.  We approach the God of the universe and he hears us.  Our prayers are sacrifices which are pleasing to him (Hebrews 13:15).

We know that God wants us to pray for people, but we need to remember why.  God desires our family members to be saved more than we do, and prayer helps us to see them as God does.  God also wants the heart of each disciple to continue to change into the likeness of Jesus.  It is amazing to see how our praying for the people in our lives can move God to soften hearts and remove obstacles.

In reading Paul’s letters, I see his deep affection for the disciples in each church he had influence over: “I want you to know how much I am struggling for you. . .and for all who have not met me personally” (Colossians 2:1).  Who do you struggle for?  Family?  Friends?  Neighbors?  That’s good and right.  But do you pray for people you have never even met?  Probably not.  I encourage you to study Paul’s letters and gain conviction about the specificity of his prayers.  Paul’s heart ached for men and women he did not even know!  What better expression of our love than prayer!