Pray For One Another

Is there someone the Lord has put on your heart to pray for? What does it mean to pray for each other, friends, family, even our enemies?

On today's episode, I talk through the importance of prayer, the posture of prayer, and the Holy Spirit's role in helping us pray. I also mention a few things that have helped me follow through when I tell someone I'll pray for them. I hope this episode encourages you as the Lord leads you in prayer for yourself and those He's brought into your life!

Scriptures Referenced:

• Romans 8:26: 
• 2 Thessalonians 2:11-13 
• 1 Thessalonians 5:25 
• Ephesians 6:18-21
• Luke 22:31-32 
• John 17

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

Carrie 0:04

Hey everyone, welcome to a new episode of Honey from the Rock. As usual, I am so glad you're here. And I'm gonna tell you, this is probably my fourth or fifth introduction that I've tried to record because today's topic is a big one. And when I start to try to talk about it, my mind goes in 17 different directions. Even though I have notes written down, I have an outline for this episode. It's like I start talking about it and pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, there goes my brain. But we're gonna try and tackle it today because it's actually a topic that I think is really, really important. And that is praying for one another. And the reason why I want to talk about this today is because I have been reflecting on the immense gift that intercession on my behalf and on my family's behalf has been, especially in the last year. Um, we have had some incredible friends and just beautiful brothers and sisters in the Lord come around us, uh, meeting us where we are literally physically, sometimes bringing meals, just sitting with us, helping us with things in life as we've navigated the grief in uh my sister and my dad passing away. But also just, I mean, friends and family far away who have checked in via text or via an email or a phone call and praying for us either right there on the phone or letting us know, hey, you've been on my mind and I have been lifting you to the Lord. And just what what a kindness the gift of prayer, the gift of intercession is. And recently with with some friends in my own life, the privilege of being invited into their own tough situations or things that they are struggling with or things that they're suffering through. And to be uh a part of a group of people praying for them to go to the Lord on behalf of my own family or brothers and sisters has been an immense, an immense privilege. And I think it's something that we talk about a lot in the midst of Christian community, but I think it's also something that is really easy to say we're going to do and yet not look not follow through on. And so I want to encourage us today as as I talk about prayer and as I just share some of the things that the Lord has challenged me on and also taught me and how He's how He's leading me in this area right now, very practically. I want to encourage you to think about somebody or a few people who the Lord has put on your heart. How are you praying for them? Have you reached out to them to let them know that you're praying for them? How is the Lord leading you in intercession or in asking for someone to pray for you? Because sometimes that's also just as hard as saying that you'll pray for someone. You know, prayer, prayer puts us in a real vulnerable place. And asking for prayer can be an incredibly vulnerable thing to do, and yet it is it's sacred and it's a gift. And so, as like I said, as I go through this episode, ask the Lord who He's putting on your heart to pray for. And I will have at the end some practical ways that I've used that have been helpful for me to remember to pray for people. But then also if you are going through something or you are suffering in some way, or you're you're just walking through something in your life where you need prayer and feel too vulnerable to ask for it, where ask the Lord to help you identify one or two people in your life that you can go to and ask for prayer. So I want to start actually in that vulnerable place with a scripture out of Romans 8, um, and this is verse 26. And I love this verse. Paul says, likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And I love this verse because it talks about our weakness, it talks about our vulnerability. We we don't know how to pray as we should, right? We don't know how to pray for as we what to pray for as we ought, Paul says. You know, we have the beautiful prayer that Jesus gives us in Matthew 6. You know, he teaches us to pray. We need to be taught how to pray for the Lord's will to be done. Uh, we need to be taught how to venerate him and honor him and worship him. We need to be taught how to ask for what we need, um, which is both physical and spiritual, how to pray for forgiveness and how to ask the Lord to help us forgive others, and how to pray for deliverance from evil, that we wouldn't be tempted, and that we would follow the Lord. And that's what I love about what Paul is saying here: the reminder that we've had to be taught how to pray. We've had to be taught how to intercede, and that the Holy Spirit leads us and he groans uh for us, he teaches us how to come before the Lord and to pray for one another and to pray for ourselves because we don't know what to pray for as we ought. And scripture is full of things uh that the Lord teaches us to pray for, you know, for grace, for mercy, for his leading, for his comfort, for forgiveness when we repent of our sins, uh, to know him more deeply, to pray for brothers and sisters who are being persecuted, who are in prison, um, who are experiencing horrible things for the Lord and his gospel's sake. Um, we can ask for people to be healed, we can ask for the Lord to comfort, we can ask for him to move mightily in situations and all of it under the umbrella of Lord, we don't know how to pray for these things as we should, but you know. And so, Lord, teach us. And one thing that I think is is really amazing is that Jesus gives us, like I said, the Lord's Prayer, but then he also gives us what is often called his high priestly prayer in John 17. And as we look at how Jesus prays and goes to the Father, how he prays for the glory of the Father to be revealed, how he prays for his disciples, and then how he prays for people who are going to come to him through his disciples going out and preaching the gospel. There's just so much richness in reading the prayers of Jesus and how he conversed with the Father, his example of continually going out into the wilderness or going up a mountain to get alone with the Father to pray and to seek the Lord. And we can learn so much from Jesus about how to pray. But one of my favorite verses is actually out of Luke 22, where Jesus and Peter are having this conversation and it's at the Last Supper, and Peter has said several times, Lord, I will never deny you, I will never leave you, I won't do this, I'll follow you to the death. And Jesus looks at Peter and he actually reverts and calls him Simon, the name that he had before Jesus changed his name to Peter. And he says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has determined to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail, and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. I I mean the magnitude of this voice, I mean of this verse, Jesus looking at Simon Peter saying, This is what Satan has desired to do, but I have prayed for you. And the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus intercedes for us too to the uttermost. And so when we're looking at what it means to pray for one another, we look at the example of Jesus, his life laid down for us, his sacrifice, the ultimate act of intercession is Jesus going to the cross and laying down his life so that we can be reconciled to the Father. And what can we learn about praying for one another in what Jesus has done for us? Well, he tells us in John 13 that people will know that we are Christians by how we love one another, but he tells, he tells the disciples and he tells us to love one another as he has loved us. And so it is a privilege and an honor to lay down our life, to actively go before the Lord on behalf of brothers and sisters. And that's where I was talking about earlier. There's been that, there's been that place, and I can own it in my own life, and I totally confess it, where people have said that they're going through something, and I'm like, oh, I'll pray for you, and then bloop, right out of my head, I don't do it, or I just forget, or I just don't do it. And and I think that we need to have a um a mind, a mind, heart, soul shift about prayer. That it's not just mumbling a bunch of words to the Lord for somebody else or for ourselves, but that we have the honor and privilege to take the burdens of brothers and sisters in the Lord to the Lord, and to beseech and seek the Lord on behalf of people in our lives who are struggling or hurting or grieving or suffering, or even rejoicing and excited. It's prayer is a place of humility and prayer is a place of sacrifice and supplication. Because we can definitely go to the Lord with our own prayer requests and beseech him for our own life. But it's it's an act of trust to set aside our own needs and to truly come before the throne of grace and and lift lift others before the Lord. Because in setting aside our own needs, what we are saying to the Lord in intercession is, Lord, I trust that you know what's going on in my life. I trust that even though I can't see it and I can't discern it and I and I'm struggling here, I know that you're going to move in my own life. And so I'm going to set my own needs aside because I want to lift those that I care about and those I love. And even, Lord, those that I am struggling with or that I are my enemy or have really hurt me. Lord, I want to walk, I want to walk in your will. I want to walk in your way. I want to pray for those who despitefully used me and abused me as you did from the cross. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. How you've prayed for me, Lord. You've prayed that prayer over me, that you've forgiven me in my ignorant sin and in my willful sin. And so I think there needs, and I and I'm again, I'm saying this in my own life, that there needs to be that mind, soul, heart shift of of how we actually view prayer. And and that prayer and intercession is something that we can grow in. It's a gift that has been given to the whole body, it's something that we can all do, but it's not just folding our hands and mumbling a few words, but there is intentionality, there is discernment, there's wisdom that the Lord wants to awaken within us when it comes to communicating with him. And to that end, I of course then went and looked up, you know, what is what does prayer actually mean? And okay, I know I say that I'm not going to try and pronounce Greek words, but I listened to this one and I am definitely not going to try and pronounce it. So if you want to look it up, it's Strong's number four three three six in the Greek, in the Greek lexicon. So when I looked it up, the first definition I found is from Helps word study. And it has two Greek words put together. And the first part means towards or exchange, and the second part means to wish or to pray. And so properly with these two words put together in the Greek, it means to exchange wishes, to pray, literally to interact with the Lord by switching human wishes or ideas for his prayers, his will, as he then imparts faith, which is his divine persuasion. Praying is interconnected with faith. And again, praying in faith not being a tool of manipulation to try and get God due to what uh God to do what we want him to do, but to humbly supplicate for ourselves and for others that the Lord's will would be done. And I love that in prayer, we have the freedom to ask according to his will. We can ask for healing, we can ask for comfort, we can ask for grace, for mercy, for love, for wisdom, for discernment, for leading, for all of those things. And all of those things are borne out in scripture. But in asking the Lord for those things, we are, we are asking and laying those requests at his feet, trusting, trusting that what the Lord does will be, will be the best thing, um, will be the most beautiful thing, will be the truest thing that that can be done. And so then I was looking up in the topical lexicon about the word prayer, and I and I love, again, I whoever wrote the topical lexicon, God bless you, just the way that they communicate the definitions of these words is a labor, and I'm sure it's a team of people, but man, it's so beautiful. So this this Greek word appears 86 times in the Gospels, Acts, and the Pauline and General Epistles. And it says this verb always denotes direct address to God, whether in petition, thanksgiving, confession, or intercession. Its distribution displays three major spheres, excuse me, the incarnate life of Jesus Christ, the formative experience of the early church, and the ongoing instruction to believers. This Greek verb constantly and consistently portrays God as personal, accessible, and responsive. It reveals human dependence, divine sovereignty, and covenant relationship. Across redemptive history, prayer is the ordained means whereby believers participate in God's purposes, receive grace, and align with his will. This verb, therefore, stands at the heart of Christian discipleship, worship, and witness, calling every generation to the throne of grace. I mean, are you kidding? I love that so much. Just the thoughtful way that they explain this word prayer. That it's it, this is direct access to the Lord. And we can pray in petition for ourselves or for others, but prayer is also thanksgiving, it's confession. Um, and I love the way that they talk about it. And again, it's what I was saying earlier. Prayer is not just, Lord, hear my requests and chucking them at him and hoping he does what we want. But to pray is to humbly submit to the Lord, to seek his will and to seek his face, to make our requests known to him, but that also in prayer that we would allow the Holy Spirit to move within us and to move on us, as Paul talks about in Romans 8, to teach us, to, to have him help us in our weakness, because we don't know how to pray for these things as we should. And especially when we're praying for one another, when we're asking for wisdom. I don't know about you, but there have been many times, there have been people in my life who have been going through things, and I'm like, Lord, I do not even know how to pray for them right now. I don't even know what to ask for. But what I'm gonna do is I'm going to just continually lift them to you, Lord Jesus, and ask that your will would be done in their life to pray for comfort, yes, and to pray for his move and for his kindness and graciousness towards them. But I think that's actually one of the most beautiful things about prayer is sometimes in our helplessness, in our human weakness and helplessness where we don't know what to do, the one thing that we can do is to go to the Lord on behalf of someone else, to cry out to Jesus, to move for people we love and even for our enemies. You know, Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us, who despitefully use us. You know, Jesus says to love our enemies and to from the heart forgive, forgive people. And so intercession is a powerful tool because it actually takes us out of the place of playing God and it puts us in the place of surrender and submission to the Lord. We don't know how to pray as we should, but Lord, you know what you are doing. And so we come in prayer, knowing we can bring all of these things to you. But we also know, Lord Jesus, that what you want to do in prayer is you want to bring us into a place where we do, we do actually align with your will, where we can receive your grace, receive your mercy, Lord, where we can know your correction and and your discipline, Lord, where we can lift, we can lift people to you in truth. And so one of one of my favorite verses actually about praying um for one another, and and really it's it's kind of interesting to put it in this context because Paul is actually asking for prayer, but is at the end of Ephesians 6, where Paul's given us the whole armor of God. And then at the very end, after he talks about, you know, having the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, he then tacks this on the end. And he says, with every prayer and request, pray at all times in the spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all perseverance and every request for all the saints, and pray in my behalf that speech may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ad an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. And this verse so beautifully ties in with the Romans 8 26 verse, because with every prayer and request, pray at all times in the spirit. Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. I just mashed those two verses together. Um, because he's he's Paul is telling us like we cannot pray without the spirit. We cannot pray without his aid and his help. And we need to be in the Holy Spirit when we pray. What does that mean? I think for me, as I read the scripture, what it means to be in the spirit, you know, Paul tells us at the beginning of Romans 8, walk in the spirit, don't fulfill the desires of the flesh. You know, have your mind transformed in the spirit. You know, he says in Romans 12, it means the confession and repentance of the sins that we commit. To be in the spirit means to be pursuing the Lord, heart, mind, soul, and strength and love and growing in sanctification. It means loving, loving your neighbor, loving one another, loving your enemy. And I love that he says, pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view, that we need to be in perseverance, all perseverance and with every request for all of the saints. That it's again, it's prayer isn't manipulation, but there's a perseverance and endurance of walking with one another in prayer, that we continually lift up, brothers and sisters. We pray for our enemies, we we ask the Lord to. Move in situations and you know, as the persistent widow. I mean, you think about what Jesus says in Luke 18. You know, that that persistent widow didn't stop. And that judge was finally like, oh my word, lady, okay, gosh, I get it. And Jesus tells us that our father is not that way. He's not like the unjust judge, but he he will move on behalf of his children. He will move for us. But there has to be a perseverance in our prayer, not growing weary in seeking, in seeking the Lord and in following him and in loving him. And I love that Paul asks for prayer on the back half of these verses in Ephesians 6. You know, pray that my that my that speech may be given to me, that I would open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. It's such a beautiful prayer. And I pray it's our prayer. Wherever the Lord's called us to minister his gospel, to walk alongside people who maybe know the Lord, who maybe don't know the Lord, that we would pray this prayer for ourselves, that the Lord would fill our mouths, and that he would also give us the holy spiritual boldness to open our mouths and to share the gospel, to preach, to preach the love of Jesus, to preach his goodness and coming and dying on the cross, that he has redeemed us from the strongholds of sin, that he wants to remake us in his image, and that as brothers and sisters in Jesus, we have the privilege and the honor to walk alongside each other and intercede for one another in that battle on that narrow way. You know, and I love um that the Lord has been so kind and gracious to give me personally, to give me people that um that pray for me. I have a small prayer team over this podcast. It's it's five women. Shout out to my mom, Gina, Emily, Terrell, and uh Taylor. I bless the Lord for you five women who faithfully pray for my podcast and for this ministry, and in turn for the honor of praying for you. Uh, my friend Nicole, I mean, she's an amazing woman of the Lord, and we have we have entered into a time of really interceding for one another. And and and our prayers are along these lines of Lord, wherever you've called us today, fill our mouths, Lord. Give us your wisdom, give us your discernment to preach your gospel, to make you known, to glorify you. Um, those are very similar things that Jesus prayed for in John 17. And I mean, again, just just mind-blowing the way that the Lord prays for the glory of the Father to be seen and to be expressed, um, how he prays for the disciples, and then how he prays for those who will come to know him through the disciples preaching the gospel. Um, consistently, Paul puts in all of his epistles, you know, please pray for us. I thank my God on every remembrance of you, I lift you to the Lord. And so I just want to encourage you with just a few of these verses, you know, that we would that we would see the honor and privilege prayer is to be able to come before the Lord, to be able to know him and and lay our requests at his feet, that we would see prayer as an act of worship, as an act of submission, as an act of trust, and something that we that we hold with a sacredness, um, and that we're not flippant about it. And so, as I said when I uh began this episode, there are a few things that I will do when I tell people that I will pray for them. Because I think I said earlier, you know, sometimes it's really easy to be like, oh yeah, I'll pray for you. And then it either slips our mind or we just don't do it. And I think one of the biggest things that the Lord is teaching me is the necessity of being intentional in prayer and and intention, intentional in my fulfilling what I say I will do. If I say I'm gonna pray for you, I need to actually pray for you. It's not something that I should just flippantly toss out. I don't think the Lord likes that very much. I think if we're gonna, if the words I'll pray for you come out of our mouth, we need to feel the weight, the weight of that phrase, because it is such, it is such a sacred, it is such a sacred act. It's something that Jesus has purchased for us by the crucifix, like the ability to pray and to have direct communication with the Lord, to not have to have a human um priest always making sacrifice, but that Jesus has come as man and is the ultimate sacrifice and our mediator. I'm gosh, you guys, I just just the seriousness with which, with, with which the Holy Spirit, the Father, Jesus holds prayer. And so one thing that I have really been try, been trying to be cognizant of is if I say to someone or I text someone, I'll be praying for you, as soon as I type out those words, I'm immediately lifting them to the Lord. I'm immediately praying for them. If it's something coming up, like a job interview or a difficult conversation, or maybe it's a medical procedure, I'm putting it in my notes app or in my reminders app on my phone and setting a reminder so that when it's happening, um, you know, that reminder pops up and it's like, oh yes, Lord, thank you. Um, thank you for this reminder to pray. And the other thing is when the Lord puts somebody on my heart to actually listen to him the first time. I I don't know about you guys, but sometimes the Lord will bring somebody to mind and I'm like, okay, Lord, yeah, thank you. I'll get to it in a second. And then the Holy Spirit's like, you'll do what now? Hmm. It's because I most times when the Lord is putting somebody on my heart, it's because there's an immediate need. And again, I'm gonna go back to this Romans 8.26 scripture. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. If the Holy Spirit is prompting me to pray for someone, I need to listen to him. And I need to mentally put aside or maybe physically put aside whatever I'm doing and take that time to actually lift whoever it is to the Lord. And usually in that prompting, the Lord's also encouraging me. This has happened several times to text that person as well, to say, hey, you're on my mind, you're on my heart, I'm praying for you today. And even they're like, Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. I'm having a great day. Or, you know, most of the time it's like, oh my gosh, the Lord's so good. It's today's been a real struggle or whatever. And just the follow-through in obedience, because prayer is actually on top of us being able to go to the Lord and and lay requests before his feet, prayer is actually a two-way conversation. And our prayer actually involves us lifting people to the Lord, supplicating for ourselves for people, but then also quieting ourselves down, shutting up the inner tongue, our mind, and our outer tongue, and waiting on the Lord and listening, you know, asking him to lead us in intercession and then waiting on him. And I want to encourage you with that as well, that yes, we can bring supplication and we can pray and pray and pray and thank you, Lord, for that gift, but that we also would lift someone to the Lord, maybe just say their name to the Lord and then sit and and maybe ask the Lord, Lord, how do you want me to pray for this person? I know certain things that may be going on in the lives of people around me, but the Lord knows everything. And sometimes I have found it to be incredibly powerful and moving to lift someone to the Lord and then to wait on the Lord in praying for them, to ask Jesus, how do you want me to pray for this person? Teach me, Holy Spirit. So I pray that that that encourages you, encourages you. And like I said, you know, I was talking about earlier, some things that have helped me in being faith, a faithful intercessor as a friend, a daughter, uh, a sister have been making reminders in my phone to pray for people, to respond uh to the Lord's prompting in the moment that he brings someone to mind. And usually that involves texting them and just letting them know that I'm praying for them. And then also just to lift someone to the Lord to just say their name to the Lord and then sit and wait and ask the Lord to lead me in praying for them. And this is something that I am growing in. I am asking the Lord to teach me more deeply how to how to intercede for people in my life and also for brothers and sisters around the world, for people who don't yet know Jesus. How Lord, teach me to pray. Teach me to pray. And so I hope that this has provided some encouragement for you. I I pray, as I said at the beginning, that you've thought about somebody the Lord uh wants you to pray for and that you will take the time to lift them to Jesus today. And also if you know someone has interceded for you and has lifted you to the Lord faithfully, I would encourage you to reach out to them and thank them. Um that you would um honor their intercession for you as well. I think that's something really powerful that we can do for one another as well, because there's also a cost to intercession, you know, to lay down our lives for each other. Um, you know, it's this is a this is a costly walk. This is a life laid-down submission walk with Jesus. And and I think sometimes just the encouragement of saying, hey, you've been a faithful person in my life, and I want to thank you and honor you for the ways that you have prayed for me and been there for me, I think is just amazing and incredible. So, friends, as I wrap up today, I want to encourage you with this verse from 2 Thessalonians 2, that we would take this in as the Lord teaches us even more deeply about how to pray for one another, uh, to pray for uh difficult people in our lives, to pray um for people who don't know the Lord, to pray for brothers and sisters around the world. I pray that these verses would stick in us as the Holy Spirit leads us in prayer. So Paul writes, to this end, we also pray for you always that our God will consider you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in you and you in him, in accordance with the grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.