“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
Philippians 1:3-6, 9-11
This prayer of Paul—in his letter to the Philippian church while he was in jail—reminds me of just how much our soul longs to know that others are praying for us. The more I experience the power of prayer in my own prayer life, the more I deeply covet the prayers of others.
I think God is okay with us coveting more prayer as long as our purpose is for His glory!
As I was finishing up my prayer time this morning, I thought to myself, “Kimberly, who is praying for you?” As I thought about the answer to that question, another one popped into my mind: “Kimberly, how many people know you are praying for them? And—what kind of impact would it have on them to know HOW you are specifically praying for them—just like Paul did for the Philippians?”
Wow, I love how God is always turning my thoughts around to make them more like His thoughts.
God is love. Jesus, as God, became inconceivably incarnate to pour out His life selflessly for all of mankind. We are called to love like Jesus.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
When this command is applied to prayer, it means we selflessly sacrifice our time (it’s actually God’s anyway, if we belong to Him) and pray for each other. We also can take the time to let others know we are praying for them! Ah, it’s such a blessing to receive a text or an email from someone saying they are praying for you; especially when it is a very specific prayer—like the way Paul the Apostle wrote prayers!
We are commanded to “pray without ceasing” and what an encouragement it is to know we are prayed for, right? Let someone know today that you are praying for them.
