Asking for Prayer
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Dear brothers and sisters, pray for us (v.25).
A friend recently shared the following true story that illustrates the importance of having others pray for us. A man in his church was riding his bicycle along the side of a road when he was hit by a truck traveling nearly 45 miles per hour. As he was lying there bleeding, in pain and unable to move, some concerned bystanders called for an ambulance. As they waited for the medical team to arrive, the group asked the victim how they could help him. He responded, “Pray for me.” They looked at him as if he was from another planet and backed away uncomfortably.
So the man asked one of them for a mobile phone so he could call one of his close friends. Lying there broken, on the side of the road, he called his friend, who got out the word for others to pray. Within minutes more than two dozen of his friends were praying for him. Later he said that he felt an unexplainable peace sweep over him during that time.
The apostle Paul also asked others to pray for him (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Speaking about the difficulties he would likely encounter during a trip back to Jerusalem, Paul wrote, “Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. . . . Pray that I will be rescued from those in Judea who refuse to obey God” (Romans 15:30). In another letter he asked, “Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people” (2 Thessalonians 2:2).
Paul ‘urged’ his fellow Christians to lift him up in prayer because he knew that one of the most important things we can do in a time of need or crisis is to have others intercede for us in prayer.
—Jeff Olson
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Read Ephesians 6:18. Note how often Paul says that we should be praying for others.
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What happens to us and to those who pray for us when we ask for prayer? What will you do to pray more often for others?
psalm 103 from shiftworship on godtube.
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