How To Pray For Others

When someone is going through a hard time, or a problem or just a situation where they just need a little help and you tell them you will pray for them do you actually do it? I think sometimes we say we will pray for them and we think that is enough just to say it, as though God heard us mention we will do it and that is enough. In reality, we need to pray for each other specifically.  

When we are having our daily prayer, It’s not enough to just mention the person and keep going.  For example: “and dear God I pray for Suzie and her situation, and God bless Anita and her family,” and so on. And we move on. I think sometimes we just don’t know what to say for that person in our prayers, maybe we don’t know the entire situation or who all is involved and honestly, we don’t need to know everything, it’s not our business. But what is our business is standing in the gap for a friend, helping them by taking their problems before the Almighty King.  If someone is asking for prayer they are saying, ~I can’t do this alone. They are asking for help and they are asking you.

The thing is you may not know if they are having financial difficulty, problems with their kids, maybe they are trying to get a better job, maybe there is tension with their spouse or they received news about a medical situation that isn’t going well.  These are things that you cannot fix but these are things that you can pray for.

I find that praying for wisdom for my friend usually starts the ball rolling in my prayers. If you don’t know what to say in your prayers, start by asking God to give your friend wisdom. This may seem like a simple prayer and it is, but it is powerful.  The Bible tells us in

James 1:5 if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

God gives generously isn’t that wonderful! Pray for God to give your friend wisdom to know how to handle and get through their situation pray for them to have a godly response to things that are happening to them.  Ask God to show them what they need to do, to lead them down the right path and pray for God’s will to be done in their life.

Now if you know a little about the situation then pray on a deeper level.  If you know she is having money problems, pray God will give your friend wisdom and that she will be open to creating a budget, pray for mindfulness and self-control.  These are not times to say, “I claim it, I believe it!” and let it go, no. If your friend is having a problem with their children/child pray for the child’s heart, pray for love and understanding and by all means pray for your friend as a parent.  Just because we are adults doesn’t mean we are always right. Pray for wisdom and even a renewed relationship and above all pray for God’s will to be done.

I love it when people ask me to pray for them.  I use to be afraid because I didn’t want to ask, “what do I pray for?”  I didn’t want to be noisy, but it occurred to me that they just needed prayer and it helped me to develop this system.  I knew where they worked, or what type of work they did and if they had children or a parent living with them that needed care so right there I had a lot to pray for.  Just because I didn’t know the exact problem, didn’t mean I couldn’t be specific in my prayers.

When my mom was alive and someone asked her to pray for them she would say, “do you have 2 minutes to pray right now?”  Sometimes the person was busy and just couldn’t stop, and the answer was no, but many times the answer was yes.  If this is something you chose to do, choose your time wisely you could be in the parking lot after church, or just before church service or riding around doing your errands together or on the phone with them.  Asking them to pray now, shows how much you care about your friend and your eagerness to help them.

When someone asks you to pray for them, do it. We all have 24 hours in a day and I say this because we shouldn’t be praying once a day.  The Bible tells us in

I Thessalonians 5:17 to pray continuously or pray without ceasing.  

So at some point during your day chose a time to pray for your friend specifically. In the morning during your Bible time, maybe you pray for your family and success for their day and specific prayers for each of them.  Then on your car ride to work you pray for your coworkers or your friend specifically. There are times during the day when we are alone even going to the bathroom, or taking a lunch break or walking back to work from our car, or on your ride home and even while you cook and with your children before bed.  My point is you have available times to pray for that friend before you see or hear from them again. If you said you would pray for them don’t be mediocre like I use to be, it is a wonderful thing to bring your friend before God and stand in the gap for their needs.

Amen.

 

photography by April Teesdale

Esther: For Such a Time as This

Today I want to talk about the book of Esther and how we can relate it to our lives.

Esther was raised by her cousin Mordecai, he was basically her foster parent. Esther was one of the many young virgins brought to the king and placed under the care of Hegai who was in charge of the harem of virgins.  There each young woman went through 1 year of beauty treatments before one night to audition for the King to be queen.

Now in the Book of the Law, fornication was a sin just like premarital sex, but here was Esther a Jew and this was her life.

Mordecai her foster parent would walk back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.  During this time, Mordecai uncovered a plot to kill the king and Esther reported it, giving credit to Mordecai.  Haman an honored official, despised Mordecai and plotted to kill all the Jews because they would not bow and honor him.  Mordecai sent word to Esther to go before the king and beg for mercy.  But Esther knew that appearing before the king was almost surely a death sentence.  No one must come before the king unless they are summoned and she sent this word back to Mordecai.

What we hear next is profound.  Mordecai send word back to Esther,

Ch4 v13-14    Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

These words spurred Esther on and they should encourage you.  Because even though there was sin in Esther’s life, (premarital sex) God still used her, and he used her situation.

It doesn’t matter what you are going through in your life, it doesn’t matter if you are in a bad place because just like God told the Israelites in the book of Jeremiah when they were enslaved in Babylon, “For I know the Plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you” God can still use you.

What does matter is how will you react in the midst of the storm?  For the Israelites, there were false prophets who told the people “God will deliver us and he will bring us home” But God told his people, no, it will be 80 years before you can return home, and that meant none of them would be alive to see it.

BUT GOD….. yes I love those two words, But God told his people he had a plan for their lives and they were to give their daughters to be married to the Babylonians and to prosper the Babylonians and in doing so, God would prosper them.  In the same manner, Esther obeyed to save the Jews.  God used her to save his people and because she obeyed, God allowed her to prosper.

God can use any situation, good or bad, how encouraging!  If you are in a situation you see no way out of, maybe you are supposed to be there at this time in your life no matter how it came to be.  Pray for deliverance, pray for wisdom and guidance but most of all pray for God to use you right where you are.  You may want to be out of this situation but God may have a better way out that doesn’t involve just you, God always has a bigger plan.  Now, whether he reveals his side of the plan or not, does not matter.  Again what matters is how you handle it.

To God be the Glory!  Amen!!

Photography In SattleTree, NC by Donnie Locklear III