You Can Pray for Me

Every service we end with prayer at the front of our auditorium. We do this because we want to encourage an atmosphere where prayer is always available and people praying for other people is always possible. There is a common misconception in the church today that suggests real Christians do not need prayer or even worse, that Christians shouldn’t bother others for prayer for themselves. This idea that asking for prayer is selfish and me-centered is so far from Biblical Christianity, it is dangerous!

We need to pray for one another. It’s commanded in the scriptures on several occasions.

James 5:16 (NLT) Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

A praying church is a healthy church, and a Christian requesting prayer is a Christian about to receive from God! Never be ashamed to ask someone to pray for you.

I cannot think of another person as strong in the Lord as the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote one-third of the New Testament. Paul healed many. Paul met Christ face to face and even got a visit to heaven (see 2 Corinthians 12). Paul traveled the known world and won tens of thousands to Christ. YET even he asked for prayer on a regular basis from the very people he led as an Apostle of Jesus!

Romans 15:30 (NLT) 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. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 6:19 (NLT) And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike.

Philippians 1:19 (NLT) For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.

On three specific occasions and with three different churches (in all of which he was a leader), Paul asked for prayer. The lesson? EVERYONE can and SHOULD ask for prayer from God’s people because everyone needs it and all of us can benefit from it.

This is one of the major benefits of a growing church by the way. A growing church is always adding more prayer warriors to pray for more people. In fact, for anyone who ever worries about the church getting too big, shame on you! We need more people praying for the purposes of God to be fulfilled in our communities! Why would you ever want to stop God from adding to His team to lift up more prayers to heaven and see more answers to those prayers on Earth? Think of the changes we can expect from a growing number of people in this town raising their voices to the God who can do all things to perform mighty works in many people’s lives.

Lastly, do not stop praying. I know we just finished a prayer series here at Waters Church. The tendency is to box up the series and move on. Let’s not do that. You can always join us for prayer before services on Saturday (3:30pm-3:50pm) after our second service Sunday (for 20 minutes after service concludes) and before First Wednesday (6pm-7pm). Personally as well, do not let the end of our prayer series terminate your commitment to prayer time with your Father every day. Rewatch the first message in that series to remind yourself of the importance of this time with your Father. As Billy Graham once said, “Heaven is full of answers to prayers that were never prayed.”

Let’s drain heaven of all God wants to give.

And yes… please pray for me.