I was asked today to pray for a good friend of mine as she will be leading a sort of Bible study in Grade 5 class. I remember asking the question to myself, “Why Pray for Others?” I will not be giving you too many Biblical passages today, but by just plain reasoning here are my personal answers:
1. Because the Bible say so. Needless to say, the Bible speaks a lot of things about prayer. Jesus himself set the example for praying for others. In fact, most passages about prayer in the Bible talks about praying for other people.
2. Because it is an opportunity to minister to others. Praying for other people is one of the best ways to comfort others from miseries, problems, stress and any other things that hinders them from serving the Lord. Every human being should be responsible for each other and praying for each other is one of the best ways to express it.
3. Because it is an opportunity to express your love. I meet people from time to time. I have had not only acquaintances but friendships. Having all these experiences, I discovered that not too many people pray for most of the people. And believe it or not even inside the church not too many people pray for their pastor and church leaders regularly. Prayer is an avenue of expressing your love to your pastors, church leaders, to your friend, to other members, and to your family.
4. Because prayer has power. All of us want that our problems be solved. We want our miseries to end. We want comfort, we want solutions. “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” – James 5:16, if this is true, there is no reason why should we not pray. It is a joy to see that you have helped other people to solve their problems.
Praying is all about communicating to our Lord. It is showing our dependency to Him, it is putting our trust to Him. If you yourself have experienced the power of prayer, why not share it.
What to Do Next?
I encourage you that you do this today:
- Pray for your pastor.
- Pray for your church leaders.
- Pray for your church.
- Pray for your friend who is in need.
- Pray for your friend who has a problem.
