Praying for Other Believers

Why we should pray, what we should pray and how we should pray for other believers

Praying for other believers is a powerful tool that God has made available to us. This article looks at why we should pray for other Christians, and gives some ideas about what we should pray and how we should pray.((This article is based on a sermon given on 19th November 2017 as part of a series on prayer at Grace Community Church Morval.))

A biblical picture of intercession for the people of God

When the Israelites went out to fight against the Amalekites (see Exodus 17:8-13), Moses went up on a hill overlooking the battle and raised his hands in prayer to God. As long as he held up his hands in prayer the Israelites gained ground. But as soon as his hands grew tired and he lowered them, the Amalekites started to win. So, Aaron and Hur came alongside and held up his hands until sunset, and the Israelites won the day. It’s a picture of prayer. As we pray, we can make the difference between defeat and victory in the lives of other believers.

 Why pray for other believers?

Why should we pray for other believers? Surely, we are all responsible for ourselves? There are certain things that no one else can do for us. We have to breathe; we have to eat and drink. We have to pray. If we don’t pray, then we will wither away spiritually, just as much as we would physically if we did not eat or drink. No one can do that for us. That’s true. Neglect private prayer at your peril. But the Scripture teaches that we are to love one another and to help one another. We are to be like members of a body all working together for a common goal. And prayer is a way in which we can help one another.

Examples from the Bible of praying for believers

The example of Jesus

Jesus taught his disciples to pray for themselves in the Lord’s prayer (although it was plural, not individual). But he also taught them by example to help one another by praying for each other. In the run up to the cross, you would think that Jesus would focus on his own needs. Instead we find Jesus praying for others. He knows that Simon Peter is about to face the trial of his life, and he prays for him:

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. 32But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Luke 22:31-32

In his high priestly prayer, just before his arrest, Jesus prays for his disciples,

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one

John 17:15

The example of Paul praying for other believers

Paul also prayed for believers. His letters are full of prayers for those he writes to. For example in Ephesians 1:16-17, he says,

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 

17I keep asking…

And in Colossians 1:9,

since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.

We are in a battle and prayer is a weapon we cannot afford to neglect

So, we have seen that there are plenty of examples in Scripture of praying for God’s people. But we need to dig a little deeper. Why was it so important to pray for believers? In WW2, if you were wasteful or lazy, you were likely to receive a rebuke with the phrase “Don’t you know there’s a war on?” That’s true for us too. Our enemy, the devil, has been defeated at the cross, but the last battle has not yet played out. Our ultimate victory is sure, but we don’t have it yet. (See also on this site, The Warfare of Prayer.)((For a brief but helpful article on spiritual warfare, that covers aspects not mentioned here, see Notes on Spiritual Warfare, by Thabiti Anyabwile.))

In Eph 6 Paul tells his readers to

Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

That is on often quoted passage, however it is not the only one where Paul talks about the Christian life as war. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 he says

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

He exhorted the young Timothy to

Fight the good fight of the faith (1 Tim 6:12)

Summary so far

• We pray for other Christians because Jesus and Paul both taught us by example to do that. They prayed for believers.
• We pray for other believers because we are all in a war. There is a battle going on and we must use every weapon at our disposal to support our comrades in arms.

Prayer is a powerful weapon

The final reason that we should pray for other believers is that prayer is a powerful weapon. Imagine a general in a battle: The enemy has pinned down his troops and they are in grave danger: Will he not use every weapon at his disposal to rescue them and to destroy the enemy? Imagine that same general has available a powerful weapon that he knows will make the difference between defeat and victory. Every member of his army can use it. There is a plentiful supply of ammunition. Will he not make sure that every soldier has that weapon and that they use it?

Think about how powerful prayer is.

Examples from Acts of praying for other believers

The Bible is full of examples of power in prayer. Here are just a few from the book of Acts.

• In chapter 4 the believers prayed and the building shook.
• Peter prayed in chapter 9 for a lady who had been dead for at least a day or two, and God raised her back to life.
• Three chapters further on, Peter is in prison, but the church prays earnestly for him. And God sends an angel to take him out of prison. And when he comes knocking at the door of the house where they are praying, they can’t believe it!

Modern examples

Destroying the Berlin Wall through prayer

Did such things things only happen in the Bible? In 1982 the organisation Open Doors began a 7-year campaign of prayer for the communist bloc, where at that time Christians were intensely persecuted. Seven years later, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet Union became open to the gospel.

Defeating addiction through prayer

Jacky Pullinger’s book, Chasing the Dragon, tells the story of how God worked among drug addicts in Hong Kong.((To get a flavour of Jackie Pullinger, see this interview in Premier Christianity.)) It is terrible to watch someone coming off heroin. Intense craving develops into excruciating pain that wracks the body. The body chills and sweats, vomits and wretches for hours on end. It lasts for 3 full days. A former police officer I know has told me that he used to hear the addicts crying out in agony from the police cells. It was horrible to hear. And yet, Jacky found that, without exception, those addicts who were willing to come to Christ and to pray in the Spirit, experienced none of those terrible symptoms of withdrawal. Those who were too proud to pray quickly felt their agonising effects. Prayer is just as powerful today as it ever was!

Elijah—an example of what an ordinary man can do through prayer

Remember Elijah. He challenged the priests of Baal to call down fire from heaven. For hours they prayed and danced and shouted to their god and cut themselves, to no avail. When it came to his turn, Elijah had the whole thing thoroughly doused with water, enough to fill a trench all around it. Then he prayed,

“Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

1 Kings 18:36-37

And the fire fell and burned up the wood, the stones and the soil, and licked up the water in the trench.

In the New Testament, James uses the example of Elijah in his letter. He is writing about the power of prayer. He says,

Elijah was a human being, even as we are          

James 5:17

Prayer is a powerful weapon. You don’t have to be a special person to use it. But we do have to use it. We are in a battle, and we dare not neglect the weapon God has given us.

What should we pray for other believers?

Prayer for others is both biblical and powerful. So, what should we pray?

Pray for protection from evil

It is good to pray for other believers that God will meet their needs. Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” so it is certainly not wrong to pray for that. And there may be seasons when we should pray those kinds of prayers. But given that we are in a spiritual battle, the focus of our prayers needs to be helping our brothers and sisters in that fight. That’s why in his high priestly prayer Jesus prayed for the disciples,

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one

John 17:15

Jesus prayed for Peter

That’s why Jesus prayed for Simon Peter in the way that he did just before the crucifixion. Satan was allowed to test Peter, but Jesus prayed that his faith would not fail. Peter was tested, and the test showed his brash, impetuous pride to be empty when he denied the Lord 3 times. But ultimately he kept his faith. He survived that gut-wrenching exposure of his weakness because Jesus had fought for him on his knees. Jesus’ prayer saved him to become the leader, the launch-pad of the Church, one of the most important Christians who ever lived.

Pray for others that God will equip them in the fight

Even if you never go out to speak to people on the streets, you are no less a soldier in the army of God. God may call you to fight on your knees so that when others go out on the streets people listen.

You may never stand at the front and preach, but God may call you to fight on your knees so that the preacher will preach with mighty power and God will work among you.

Or, to take another example, you may never go into a school, but God may call you to fight on your knees for our kids in school, so that they will stand strong when others tease them for believing in Jesus, or for refusing to go along with drink or drugs or pornography.

When we pray for protection for other believers, it is as though we are standing with them in the fight, as spiritual reinforcements in the battle.

You may have some struggles of your own. Ask for prayer! Will you let pride prevent you from getting the help you need?

Pray for revelation

We should pray for others that God will protect them in the fight, and we should pray for God’s help in the battle.

What else should we pray for God’s people? Let’s look at Ephesians 1. What was Paul’s burden in prayer for the believers at Ephesus? Does he pray that they will have food to eat, that they will keep their jobs or that God will keep them safe? This is what he prays,

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 

17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 

18I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you

Praying for heart level insight

I love the phrase “eyes of your heart”! God wants us to see these truths with our whole being, not just our minds. There is a significant difference between an intellectual assent—in other words being persuaded that something is true—and believing it with all of our hearts. I can say “I believe Jesus died for me” and think that I mean it. But then go out and live in the world like everyone else. Or the truth that Jesus died for me can impact my heart so radically, so deeply, that it shapes everything I do, say and think. Only then have the eyes of my heart been opened.((I have written previously about heart understanding. See for example Praying for Joy and the section on meditating on God’s word.))

Paul prays something similar in Eph 3:17-21, where he prays that the Ephesians will be given the power to understand, to fully grasp, how much Christ loves them:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, … , to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Growing and seeing go together

Growing and maturing in our faith and growing in the power of the Holy Spirit go hand in hand with revelation. To grow, we have to see. Not just in our minds, but with our hearts and our whole being. Paul prays that God will give the Ephesians the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that they may know him better. It’s about seeing more of him in his wonder and majesty, more of his amazing love for us, more of the completeness of the salvation that he has worked for us. These things make up his glory. We have to see them more clearly. This is the greatest thing we can pray for our fellow believers, and the best way to help them in their daily struggle.

To grow we have to see.

How should we pray for other believers?

We are in a battle. Using this great weapon of prayer is a way of supporting one another in the fight. We can help by praying for protection for one another against evil, for help in the battle, and by praying for eyes to be opened to see more of our great God.

To finish with, here are a couple of thoughts about how we should bring these prayers for other believers before the Lord.

With thanksgiving and joy

How does Paul approach his prayer for the Ephesian believers? Do we get a sense that he has added them to his long prayer list and that he dutifully prays for them each day because he knows that he must? No! There is nothing dreary or routine about this prayer; it feels more like an overflow of joy:

I have not stopped giving thanks for you

Eph 1:16

We get the same impression from his prayers for the Philippians

I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,

Phil 1:4-5

So, when we pray for our fellow believers, let’s begin with thanksgiving.

I find that as I consider how the world is becoming increasingly hostile to Christian faith, I am just so grateful for those who do believe and take a stand for Christ. So, let’s be sure to thank God for our fellow believers. Thank God that he has saved them; thank God that they give themselves sacrificially to the work of Christ. Thank him with joy for giving you brothers and sisters. That will help us too to set aside petty disagreements and irritations.

With perseverance

We pray with thanksgiving and with joy. We also pray with perseverance. The world is in the grip of our enemy. There is a war on to release people from his grasp. The battle is long and hard, and we have to keep praying and not give up.

George Müller used the power of prayer to look after thousands of orphans in the nineteenth century. In 1844 he began to pray for the conversion of 5 individuals. He prayed for them every day without exception, no matter what he was doing. The first became a Christian after 18 months. The second after 5 years. After another 6 years the third became a Christian. In 1896, 52 years after he started praying, he was still praying for the two remaining individuals. He died in 1898. The last two came to the Lord a few years later.

In Luke 18:1-7, Jesus tells a parable about a widow who keeps nagging until eventually the judge gives in and grants her request. Luke explains that Jesus meant to teach his disciples

to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Paul says in Colossians 1:9

since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,

Conclusion “Don’t you know there’s a war on?”

Do you pray for God’s people? “Don’t you know there’s a war on?” There are many things that I don’t understand about prayer. But I do know that prayer works. I know that we are in a battle and that prayer is a powerful weapon. I know that every believer is a soldier in the battle. God calls every one of us to use this mighty weapon. Everyone can pray. No matter how young you are or how old, whether you have been a Christian for a few days or for decades, whether you dropped out of school or have a PhD, you can talk to God.

Bring before him the needs of your fellow believers in Christ.

Provide spiritual reinforcements through prayer for those who are flagging on the front line.

Ask Almighty God to protect them when they are under fire, to challenge them when they need to step up, to resource and equip them when their strength runs low.

Moses’ prayers enabled the Israelites to defeat the Amalekites. Your prayers can make a difference too!