As believers in Christ, we have the very great responsibility of praying for each other. A lot of people downplay the importance of prayer, and few actually spend time talking to God on behalf of their friends. And I don’t mean a quick sentence uttered right after we promise someone that we will pray for them. I would like to suggest that speed prayer is not the way God would have us honor that.
A promise to pray shouldn’t be that kind of shallow, casual platitude that we don’t really mean. It should be regarded as sacred; it should carry weight in our relationships. We should care enough to continually remember that person and their burden, to come before God in intense intercession on their behalf - the kind of intense intercession that Jesus modeled for us in John 17 when he prayed for his disciples and for future believers, the kind of intercession Abraham modeled in Genesis 18 when he boldly came before God on Lot’s behalf.
I will be the first to admit that I don’t always spend enough time in prayer, and that it’s not always easy to be still long enough to really pray for the people in my life. But if we look at what God’s Word says about praying for each other, we see that it is one of the most important things we are called to do as believers. In 1 Samuel 12:23, Samuel says this to the people of Israel:
“Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.”
Wow. Convicting, right? To think we are actually sinning against the Lord by failing to pray for our brothers and sisters… This shows how important prayer really is. Having Jesus’ heart for others means that we consistently pray for them. It’s one of the most important ways we can carry each other’s burdens. Paul includes something that speaks to this in almost all of his letters. He was always praying for the people he had shared the gospel with, for his brother and sisters in the Lord. In Colossians 1:9-11, he says:
"Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience."
This is an intense prayer. Paul really cared about these people.
Later in Colossians (4:12), we hear about Epaphras’ love for the Colossian people. “He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” Epaphras cared so much that Paul described his prayer as wrestling. He was invested, committed to the fight, to the struggles his friends were facing.
Again, Paul shares his value of prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19.
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Isn’t that a beautiful prayer?
If this hasn’t been enough to convince you, here are a couple more places in Scripture that communicate our call as believers to pray for one another:
1 Timothy 2:1 “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone.”
James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for each other… The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
God answers prayer in powerful ways, and I even think that our ability to love others grows when we constantly pray for them. And we shouldn’t be afraid to share those prayers with one another, to have those few intentional friends that know what you need prayer for. It is important to create that space with one another to share those things, to be vulnerable and maintain accountability. This is how we grow, in community with other believers. That’s how God designed the church.
Here’s my challenge: Be in conversation with the Lord on behalf of the people in your life. Lift up their burdens to God, share in their joys and their sorrows. What deeper way to love someone than by lifting them up to “him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph. 3:20)?
