Prayer Friends

I became friends with someone that is far different from me. We ran in completely different circles. There were a lot of reasons why we would have never become friends. For all practical purposes, it is possible that we might even have become enemies.

I looked over and noticed that I had a trusted friend. Where did that come from? I was so busy working with God on myself that I wasn’t paying attention. Like when a person is sitting there and vegging out and then they suddenly notice someone sitting next to them. Startled look, pause, shaking of the head as reality floods through them, and a hesitant, “Uh… oh… hi… how are you?”

We just happened to be walking down the same path towards God. I prayed for her from time to time. I watched her grow, which made me want to pray more for her. You can not pray for everyone every single day, or you would not get any rest. Some come up in your prayer life from time to time in different seasons. However, everyone has a core of people that consistently remain in their prayers. These are the people that you care the most about. These are the ones that affect your life and your walk with the Lord. They are the ones that help shape your destiny.

Unknown to me, she also started praying for me. She watched me grow, which make her want to pray more for me. Our lives became connected through prayer. When you pray for someone, you make an investment into their lives. As with all investments, you care about how everything turns out. This affects you. We are busy people and if we take time out of our lives to pray for someone, we want to see results.

I was friends with another precious person and we prayed for each other. After a short time, I was the only one praying for the other person. The friendship started deteriorating and eventually died off. We no longer had that prayer connection. When you jumpstart a battery, both cables on both ends need to be connected in order for the power to be exchanged. One of the cables has to be grounded, or there would be no affect. When you pray for another person and they also pray for you, you are both connected. When the grounding is our Lord Jesus, power will be exchanged from one to the other.

We always need to go to our Father first in every situation. However, God never intended that we ONLY fellowship with ourselves and Him. God intended that we also fellowship with other believers. We are not to forsake the assembling together of other believers. When we connect with others and Jesus is our grounding, we exchange power from one to the other.

God said that is not right for man to be alone. Through prayer, I am connected to many wonderful souls that cross the gender line, race-line, financial pockets, and brain capacity. The Church is the one place in the world where we see this happening. In the New Testament times, the elder of a church could have been the slave to one of the common parishioners.

I noticed that those who are the closest to me, are the ones that consistently pray for me.  We have goals in our lives and we are running a race that we will finish.  When we reveal our thoughts and troubles to others and they pray for us, their hearts open up to us.  We become closer through the praying.  When healings take place after our prayers, our faith is strengthened and we are encouraged to pray some more.  When our prayers seem to be answered in the opposite way that we wanted, our friends are there to show their support.  This also strengthens our faith and we are encouraged to pray some more. 
 
Either way, we also become closer to God.  I thank God almost everyday for my friends and those that will soon become my friend.  There are no accidents involving our friends.  I believe that God has placed them there for our benefit… so that we will not be alone.
 
Pray for me, my friend.  I am praying for you.  Let’s unleash the power of God.

PRAYER FRIENDS

(C)2006 Tracy Young