By Lora Lynn | Leave A Comment
Have you ever told someone you’d pray for them and then walked away and completely forgotten?
James 5:16b says “pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
On the surface, it shouldn’t be too difficult to squeeze in a moment or two for prayer. But we all know it’s not that simple. Life crowds in and sometimes the last thing we remember to do is to pray for other people. Some days the only prayers that cross my lips are “Help me, Jesus,” just before I succumb to the pile of laundry, crumbs, and diapers.
Here are a few tips to help us all make intercessory prayer a part of our daily business:
- Pray for telemarketers. They’ve already interrupted your day, right? Once you’ve hung up or politely declined, take five seconds and lift up that person in prayer. You don’t have to know their every need. Just pray that someone would show them Jesus that day. Or maybe stay on the phone and BE that person…
- Even if you can’t actually support a Compassion International child, or a child in some other program, it doesn’t cost anything to pull up the website every day and pick one child to pray for. Pray that someone else will be able to sponsor them and will find that child TODAY. This would be a great activity to do with your children, allowing them to pray for a child they select.
- Pray in traffic. And I don’t mean raining down fire and brimstone on the person who cut you off! The next time you’re stuck at a red light, take a minute to glance over in the car next to you and try to really see that person. Ask God to show you what to pray. Then pray for that person until you come to the next stop light.
- Pray for people while you do housework. Assign a different room or chore to each person you want to pray for. While you’re dusting you can pray for Aunt Millie, while you wash dishes you can pray for your husband, and so on. You can also help your kids develop their prayer life by teaching them this same principle and applying it to their chore list.
- Try praying for the people on your day’s to-do list, either to call, email, or see. When you reach for the list in the morning to review the day’s plan, take five extra minutes praying over the activities and people ahead of you. It might just make the day go smoother, or at least give you a different perspective when your day doesn’t go as planned.
Praying for others is a sacrifice of our time and mental energy, placing other people ahead of ourselves and our busy lives. If you’ve got other ideas for incorporating intercessory prayer into our lives, please share with all of us and leave them in the comments!
Photo courtesy of Erin Parkes
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When she comes up for air, Lora Lynn writes about family life and laughter with five kids under five at Vitafamiliae.
ABOUT Lora Lynn
Lora Lynn blogs about less-than-holy life with five kids ages six and under at www.vitafamiliae.com.{read more}
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Good suggestions for adding time for prayer. I think you will enjoy reading another prayer blog “Pause to Think” on the http://www.thedailylily.com.
THANX for the helpful tips! =0)
These are great ideas. Thanks
Those are great reminders to pray for other people. I remember you saying once that you prayed for other moms with newborns while you nursed Ellen early in the morning. I so appreciated those prayers!
Something I’ve seen my mom and Mr. G (you know who I mean, Ms. Fanning) do is to pray with that person right there for a few minutes. The action then tends to spur on mental reminders to do so again privately.
Great post!
These are such good reminders. Thanks! I pray when I walk my dog in the morning. Sometimes I pray for the people in my neighborhood as I walk past their house, other times I pray for my kids and husband. I find now that I look forward to walking the dog!
Great post, Lora! I have so many memories of my mother just praying throughout the day. Sometimes she’d stop my siblings and me and have us sit down to pray for a particular need (usually right after finding out about one). But most times, I’d just hear her praying under her breath as she went about the daily routine. That had a profound impression on me as a child, because it showed me that “praying without ceasing” was the easiest way to stay focused on the Lord throughout all the busyness of the day.
Your prayer strategy reminds me of Mom — praying for particular people while doing particular chores. When I got married and started writing thank-you notes, I prayed for the givers as I wrote each note. And I did my best to make a mental picture of each giver when I looked at the gift so that I could remember who had given us what. Now, whenever I look at a certain tea set, I think of missionary friends in Japan and pray for their family. When I look at a silver platter, I think of my sweet sister-in-law and pray for her. It really does give a new dimension to household chores when you invest them with prayer. Thank you for the reminder!
Blessings,
Jennie