Why Do We Pray For Each Other?

< This is not a very good picture of Susanne but it will do for this little morcel of wisdom. This is a picture of innocence and confidence. I guess she was about 10 or 11 in this picture. Susanne was a sweetie but she certainly had a mind of her own I think. Memories of her are very sketchy and it is pictures like this that help me so much.

Well, after her accident I was a mess. That is the only way I know to put it. I could not have prayed a prayer that made any sense to God. I was hurt, angry, scared, numb, regretful, unforgiving and I could go on and on. I know that while I was going through all these crazy painful emotions that there were people all over that was lifting me up in prayer to our Lord. I know we have all seen the picture of "Footprints In The Sand". If you have never been the person Jesus is carrying get ready because sometime in your lifetime I believe God lets us go through a period where we know without a shadow of a doubt that HE and HE ALONE was the one that carried us through that trial and heartache.

In James 5:16 God tells us "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." In I Timothy 2:8 He says "Therefore I want the men in every place to PRAY, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension". I Thessalonians 5:17 we are told "...pray without ceasing". I could go on and on with scriptures that tell us to pray........pray for each other...........pray for our enemies.

Since prayer is mentioned so much in God's Word I think I can safely assume that prayer is for all God's people and we are to pray for ALL God's people and to pray for the lost to be saved. Prayer should come from a loving heart, not a heart that is praying God will jerk somebody up and make them believe what we believe and show them how wrong they are . We could possibly be wrong in somethings we believe.

I am so thankful for all the prayers that were lifted up to heaven for me and my family during those trying weeks months and years. Maybe sometimes God just allows hearts to be broken because He uses those times to bring us back where we need to be. In His arms...........listening to Him instead of telling Him everything.

I thank God for not answering all my prayers. There have been times in my life that I know I prayed for the wrong things. There are lots of things I don't understand about answered prayers. I do know there was a time in my life when I was highly insulted because someone walked up to me and told me they were praying for me. This was way before Susanne's accident. I was still clinging to a religion that had embedded certain beliefs in me and I knew I did not need the prayer of this person. I should have been praying for her because she needed it more than I did. Recently, I told someone I was praying for them, knowing their family was going through some tough times. The reaction I got was " yeah well WE ARE PRAYING FOR YOU TOO.........WE ALL NEED PRAYER.............and he walked away very insulted and feeling very righteous in his rebuke of me. I felt so sorry for him because I had been there before and I know how wrong I was and how wrong he was.

Well, God will allow us to believe anything we choose to believe for a season, sometimes for several seasons. But HE will get our attention at some point, a point where we all equally end up .....................lying flat on the floor only to be able to look up seeking God and His mercy. We are to pray for each other out of love, praying for God to do a glorious work in each other, for wisdom, love , mercy, grace, healing, deliverance, forgiving one another.

We should welcome a brother or sisters prayers, just as we should willingly lift them up in prayer. Being accountable to each other and praying for each other helps us to stay where we need to be and keeps us from becoming high and mighty righteous know it alls. We need each other, we are to love one another, even our enemies, we are to forgive each other. We never know when SUDDENLY we will be totally dependent on anther's prayers because the bottom has been knocked out from under us and we cannot pray for ourselves.