I’m Praying For You

Be careful if you search this site for the words “pray”, “prayer”, “praying.” There will be a plethora of results! Look to the right on this page and there are prayer requests and appreciation for those who are praying. Last week, though, saying I was praying for someone brought this question:

“Are you praying for me because I’m a bad person?”

We had disagreed on a doctrine of faith that has become a political issue, and we had agreed to disagree, unable to change each other’s mind.  We had expressed all that, and our continued love for each other. Then I said I was “praying for you.”

My immediate answer, though much shorter than this blog, was that Christians pray, a lot. It’s the way we communicate with our Lord. We’ve been given multiple examples of prayer. Christ gave one:

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13 KJV)

The “us” in there includes myself and those I include in prayers – nothing at all to do with anyone being “bad.” Samuel told those who asked him that he would pray for them, too, and went a step further:

Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: (1 Samuel 12:23 KJV)

We’re following Paul’s exhortation to Christians:

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17 KJV)

For this particular person, I pray with thanksgiving, as Paul did for a church:

I thank my God always on your behalf, (1 Corinthians 1:4a KJV)

I give thanks for her character, the woman she is, the future she has, the marriage she strengthens, the work she does, the support she gives, the responsibilities she accepts. There’s nothing “bad” in those things. I also pray David’s first chronicled Psalm:

Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually. (1 Chronicles 16:11 KJV)

I also pray from the first chapter in the book of Psalms:

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Psalms 1:2 KJV)

Jesus prayed for His disciples, and for those who hear of Him through their words:

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; (John 17:20 KJV)

For her, and others, I also pray for their faith:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17 KJV)

Why? Because I love them – more than just the one who asked the question, there are others in my prayers – and believe His word:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 KJV)