1 Thessalonians 5:25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us.

Commentary: It is good for leaders to feel the need for others to pray for them. We often are called to pray for those under our care and I must tell you that it is one of the best things a pastor and his wife and family can hear is that this or that person or family is praying for us. Likewise, when we hear that someone needs prayer we pray. One of my senior pastors, when I started ministry, used to tell me not to tell people that I would pray for them, but to pray for them as soon as they request the prayer. Whenever we ask others to pray for us and others ask us to pray for them and we do it, we have acted in agreement. I wish we did more of that.

When it comes to prayer in general between the saints today and in the past, what we have noticed is that the more people are successful in life the less they pray. Is this something you who are reading this devotional have noticed?

Prayer: O Lord, may we find more agreement between us as we pray for each other, as we praise You and petitioned You. Help me be a better prayer person, more like Jesus Christ who was a good example of a prayer person. Amen

Commentary: Here are a few cross reference verses for our verse 25 above:

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

Reflection: I have found that it is hard to have negative feelings towards someone in the church or our family for whom we pray and eventually pray with regularly. Did you find that in your life?

It seems that humbly confessing things to each other comes easier when we are ready to pray for each other regularly. Hence, if you do not like someone, fine, commit to praying for such a person regularly until you see the breakthrough.

Ephesians 6:18-19 Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints. / Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel,

Commentary: To me these verses are saying that we need to seek the Holy Spirit daily as instructed in Luke chapter 11 so that He guides us for who to pray, when to pray and how to pray. The Holy Spirit is our prayer guide. That can happen 10 times a day or 20 times a day. When we do so, we can proudly say that we have relationship with Jesus Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Yes?

Colossians 4:3 …as you pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

Commentary: Prayer for the divine appointments! Yes. When we pray this prayer, the Lord will either answer it right away or soon or He will start working on us to prepare us for these witnessing appointments. We should always work on these together with others. Jesus instructed us to do in two by two. There is a lot of wisdom in such a call.

2 Corinthians 1:11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers.

Romans 15:30 Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

Commentary: This is a bold request from the apostle Paul, and why not.

Philippians 1:19 because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance.

Commentary: Bad things happen to anyone who lives on this planet. What Paul is saying here is that no matter how much trouble we get into, when we join in prayer, Jesus Christ will turn our distress into our deliverance. Talking about fulfilment of John 10:10b, oh yes, and Jesus can do it more abundantly than we can imagine.

Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us; we are convinced that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

2 Thessalonians 3:1 Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread quickly and be held in honor, just as it was with you.

1 Timothy 2:1 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone—

Philemon 1:22 In the meantime, prepare a guest room for me, because I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

Acts 12:5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was fervently praying to God for him.

Commentary: There are real prisons that this verse talks about and according to Matthew 18:34 there are mental prison we put ourselves in when we do not follow God’s ways of dealing with people.

Acts 4:29-31 And now, Lord, consider their threats, and enable Your servants to speak Your word with complete boldness, / as You stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” / After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Commentary: Wow! This can happen to us if we desired such experiences with God for His glory and our joy.

2 Corinthians 13:7 Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not that we will appear to have stood the test, but that you will do what is right, even if we appear to have failed.

2 Corinthians 9:14 And their prayers for you will express their affection for you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.

2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as did my forefathers, as I constantly remember you night and day in my prayers.

Commentary: There is a lot we can say about prayer. We pray regularly and when that which we pray for regularly did not come through we have an option to pray with someone regarding the same prayer request.

When we sense that the two of us who have prayed and request is not being fulfilled, we can ask a larger group to pray for us and the next step is to ask the church to pray for us.

We as well need to be aware that when we struggle with all kinds of illness, we can call the elders so they would prepare and have anointing and prayers as well. We need to choose to access these blessings that exist in our church family no matter how we feel about ourselves.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus Christ for praying for our family. May I grow in being an even better prayer person so that You have a smile on your face, Jesus, when you hear of my prayer habits. Amen

Peter Caran

Pastor of Cobourg and Harmony Churches