How You Pray For, With or Over Others Could Make a Difference in Their Lives
If you’ve been praying for the needs and salvation of a friend and don’t see them growing closer to Christ, have you considered engaging with them in your prayers for them?
Nearly 25 years ago, my first husband died suddenly in an accident. My Christian friends and family – and even people I didn’t know – began telling me in cards, over the phone and in person, “I’ll pray for you.” Mired in grief and knowing little about Christ and the power of prayer at the time, I’d say “thank you” and dismiss their words. Their sentiment seemed to have little to do with me and more to do with them.
One friend, knowing I didn’t pray much beyond “God help” or The Lord’s Prayer I memorized as a child, asked me specific questions about my situation and then told me exactly what she’d pray for. If a prayer was answered, she told me that too. Her questions engaged me and showed me her prayers were more about me. They also began to teach me what I could pray for myself.
Several months into my grief journey, another friend called to hear how I was doing. Before ending our conversation, he asked if he could pray over me. Right now. I admit it was strange to hear someone speaking to God on my behalf and asking God to “draw near” to me. But while he was praying I felt something stir in my heart and soul. I later learned, For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20). I asked God, “Could it be you I felt?”
I mentioned the phone call to the first friend. From then on, she and I prayed together, her speaking and me listening. It surprised me when one day she told me she would start the prayer and I could finish. I could have declined, but by then I had started praying on my own and I didn’t want to turn her down.
By engaging with me in their prayers for me, my two friends started me down a path of actively praying to God and eventually accepting Jesus into my life.
God answers our prayers for people who don’t even know we’re praying for them. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16b But if you haven’t seen the spiritual growth you want to see in those you’re praying for, perhaps it’s time to engage with them in your prayers for them.
As you pray for, with and over friends and loved ones this month, please join us as we use our October prayer calendar to pray for Awana around the world. If you’d like to receive the monthly calendar in your inbox and an invitation to our monthly Child Discipleship Prayer Call, sign up to become a prayer partner.
Carla’s work at Awana has been on the communications and marketing teams. It is important to her that Awana leaders and volunteers have the information they need to best disciple the kids in their care, and that these kids grow to become disciplemakers, themselves. When Carla is not at work, she enjoys walking with friends, taking pictures of birds and sunsets, or exploring new places with her husband and daughter.
