Praying Friends

Everyone needs to have praying friends. It’s a desire everyone should have. There isn’t anything like a friend who prays for you. Or do they really pray? Someone one’s said, when black people say they will pray for you, that was the prayer.

We all have friends who say they’re praying for us. It’s hard to judge who actually prays and who doesn’t. When we go through challenges or when our friends go through challenges, do we really pray or do we just secretly hope that everything turns out good while we try to face our unimportant battles.

Sometimes we wish our friends well, but praying for them and wishing them well are 2 different things. Wishing your friend well will not turn the situation for their good. Praying will. Prayer can turn what would have been a bad outcome into a good one.

I am brought to remembrance of the story of James and Peter. The king had captured James and put him in prison. I’m very sure he asked his friends and the church to pray. They probably wished him well. They knew he was a servant of God and expected God to just show up on his behalf. They probably just said to him, Don’t worry, God will sort you out, we’ve seen how dedicated you are.

“It’s amazing how we take serious issues for granted. We think God is a machine. The bible said we receive not, because we ask not.”

Wishing him well didn’t rescue him and deliver him from the king. No one prayed, and the worst happened. Did God want him to die? Was it his time to die? No! A thousand times No! I believe if adequate prayers were made for him, he would have been delivered.

We see our friends go through challenging times and come out with a negative result and we wonder why God will let his servant be battered with so much failure? Well, it’s because we weren’t actually praying for them. We were wishing them well, and hoping that somehow it will be all good.

Some Christians have even come up with some statements they use in such situations which is nothing short of embarrassing. Some say “It’s God will”, “What will be will be”. No. It wasn’t God’s will for James to die. Most of the negative things that happen to us on earth aren’t the will of God. With a little more prayer, it probably would have turned out positive.

“Don’t just wish your friends well, Pray them well.”

As for those who say “What will be will be”, what will be will only be, if you pray it into being. God is committed to performing what we ask him to perform.

I don’t tell my friends I’m praying for them anymore. I just do it, consciously and specifically.

Prayer isn’t something we should bluff about. It’s serious business. It can save a life, It can save a destiny, it can take a man from zero to hero.

I’ve often said that the best gift you can give to your friend is to desperately pray for them.