Praying for One Another

I recently received a letter from a woman living in the Midwest who described how God had blessed her when she visited one of our services. After the sermon that morning, I did something I often do. I asked people to join with someone nearby in order to pray personally for each other. This woman told me how she had entered the sanctuary that day weighed down by a problem that had troubled her for several weeks. Feeling spiritually fatigued and at her wits' end, she turned to another woman, and they joined hands and began to pray. Suddenly she heard her prayer partner praying boldly and specifically for her, using language exactly describing her dilemma. Since the woman was praying with a total stranger, she knew the Holy Spirit was at work through her partner to help her believe that God knew and cared about her need.

That morning this woman wept for joy, finding fresh grace to surrender her cares to the Lord. What blessings we forfeit when we fail to take God's Word seriously to "pray for each other"! Like this woman, I have been helped by the prayers of other believers, especially at cru­cial times when Satan has fiercely assaulted me. Let's not allow pride and self-consciousness to rob us of the good things God intends.

Cymbala, Jim. Break Through Prayer. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2003, p. 55.

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