Power of Prayer
It’s said the best way to get to know someone is to ‘walk a day in their shoes’ which is to say, you must experience their life from their perspective, not your own. Even then, the only person who can truly understand the struggles and triumphs is God.
Movie makers retell stories of real-life people who face huge obstacles and fight to overcome them. A couple of my favorite are Soul Surfer, the story of Bethany Hamilton who as a pre-teen had her arm bitten off by a shark while surfing and 42, a movie based on Jackie Robinson, the first Negro to play in the Major Baseball League. Though these movies have really low points, they are only sharing a glimpse of the struggle. It is difficult to show in film the strength and courage it took to stand up and face another day.
One way we can get to know someone though, is to hear their prayers. The things people pray for are the things that mean the most to them. You get to know a person’s heart, when you hear their prayers.
I’m not talking about prayers like the one you pray before a meal or memorized prayers like the ‘Our Father’ but those individual prayer intentions people pray. For example, someone might pray for a relationship that isn’t going well or for financial strength or a sick friend. These prayers tell you about a relationship they value, that they have some financial worries and a friend whom they care for is sick and in need of healing. You can’t learn these things by asking them, “how are you doing?”
Likely the things people pray for are held dear and considered personal. When asked, “how are you doing” unless you have a close relationship, you don’t ask them to pray for you. There is even a safeguard phrase, to keep the things we pray for close; special intention. When you ask someone to pray for a special intention, you are trusting them to pray for you, but not trusting them with the content of the prayer because you feel it is just too personal.
It shouldn’t matter whether you know the prayer or even know the person for which the prayer is intended, what matters is that you were asked to pray together. The important piece is that the more people who pray together, the more united we are in our requests. Praying for big things like the stop to global warming coming from the mouth of one young girl is good and God hears her prayer, but when more people pray together, it inspires the world to take action. Remember we are God’s hands, feet and heart; when God wants something to change, he uses all of us to do it.
When Jesus walked the earth, he left big footprints to fill. The key is that you don’t need to do it alone. When you see big obstacles to overcome, like the people portrayed in the movies I mentioned, there are people praying for you. Some of the people praying, you might not know and will never meet. This is the power of prayer, that it is done together!
