Pray

“Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you…” 
~1 Samuel 12:23

I was reminded recently of the needfulness and benefit of praying for one another. I answered a phone call from a friend and we began talking about this, that, and the other thing. Over the course of the conversation, we discussed how easy it is to fall away from earnest prayer for our fellow Christians. Of course, we pray when someone is ill or facing a hardship — we pray for our sister who has a pending surgery or our brother who lost his job — but are we diligent in praying for one another just because we get to?

One of the things the Lord’s Prayer teaches us is that we should pray with and for one another. You will have noticed, I’m sure, that the pronouns in the Lord’s Prayer are all plural (our, us, our, us, our, we, our, us, us). This suggests strongly that God’s intention is for us to lift up our fellow Christians in our daily prayers. Indeed, our prayers for ourselves are merely a template for our prayers for others — we want them to be provided for, forgiven, kept from sin, etc. Yes, we pray for particular hardships and circumstances, but we are to pray daily that our brothers and sisters would honor the Lord with their lives, grow in grace, and pursue the will of God. 

Now, the scope of this can be overwhelming, if we let our minds go too far. There are countless millions of Christians around the globe whom we will never know this side of heaven. We can’t know their particular needs, and we can’t know their particular names. But we can pray for “The Church” according to the Lord’s Prayer. We can pray for the persecuted, the evangelizing, the suffering, and the happy — asking the Lord to work His sovereign will in all their lives. We can, and should, maintain a candle in our hearts for the global Church. 

But I think this encouragement needs to be brought closer to home. We are a part of a local body of believers at Christ Covenant Church. (Of course, some of you reading this are part of another local church — feel free to apply this there.) We know one another, worship alongside one another, walk through hardships with one another, and have vowed to pursue the peace, purity, and prosperity of this congregation as long as we are members of it together with one another. 

I would like to borrow my friend’s encouragement and share it with you: Let us be reminded to show love for and interest in one another by renewing our commitment to prayer. Use the church directory and pray for three or four families every day. You’ll be able to pray through the whole church several times a year at that rate. You can also access our Prayers of the People webpage to learn more about particular needs and our global Church community. Both of these will help you remember people’s names and become interested in people’s lives, as well as spark within us all an increased sense of belonging to the family of families as we grow in brotherly and sisterly affection for one another through prayer.

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor