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Praying with Others

“If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them of my Father which is in heaven (Matthew 18:19).”

One of the most powerful things you can do as a human being is to pray for yourself. One of the greatest accomplishments of this life is developing a consistent, open, and honest dialogue with your Creator, God. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much (James 5:16).” Although it may seem like a play on words, there is a major difference in praying with someone and praying for someone.

Your prayer life may begin with someone praying for you because you do not know how to pray or be knowledgeable of the truth that you can talk directly to God for yourself or even that there is a God in which to pray. Maybe you asked someone to pray for you because you were angry with God or disenchanted by those who represent God. Someone may have jumped started your prayer experience by sharing with you their testimony of the power of prayer. Nevertheless, the goal is for you to learn to pray for yourself and to pray with others when necessary.

Jesus gave his disciples a structure to use for prayer until they were comfortable to develop their style and format of prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Once you learn to pray, you can empower people to establish and maintain a relationship with God through their own prayer lives. You can support people in prayer and pray with them, but people mustn’t become dependent on you to pray for them. You can provide people with prayer tools and, at the same time, tell them that your prayers are no more powerful than theirs. It may appear that way because you have more experience with prayer or do it more often; nevertheless, prayer is a tool, and the more you use it, the more proficient you become.

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