Praying For One Another, For Real

"You're in my prayers" and "I'm praying for you"....Christians say this all the time, but are we doing it? Do we really mean it? I have been guilty of this myself, especially when you're consoling someone who has just lost a loved one. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe we do this purposely, but saying this in certain situations has become a habit for some of us. We'll say it and most of the time we intend to pray for the person but we often forget.

Lately I've been asking God to help me with this and He has! I love how He doesn't need us to say repetitive, loooooong, drawn out, big worded prayers to reach Him, "When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again." (Matthew 6:7). It doesn't matter how long the prayer is, if you cry and/or drool....if you're praying in the Spirit God will hear you, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people." (Ephesians 6:18). I don't want to just tell people that I'm praying for them to sound "deep" because being "deep" won't get me anywhere or help their situation. So in the quick moment of telling someone I'm going to pray for them, I say the prayer then and I know He hears me and sees the sincerity in my heart.

I encourage you to do the same. Let's genuinely and sincerely mean what we say when we say we're praying for one another. Sometimes people don't know how to pray for themselves and are counting on our effective prayers.

I pray (and I mean it) that everyone who reads this has a wonderful and safe weekend!!

"Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." - James 5:16