Power in Prayer

“I’m praying for you” is simultaneously one of the most powerful and beautiful sentences we can say to another person.  As the Body of Christ, we have the ability and responsibility to pray for others.  And there is a lot of power in that.

There’s a passage from a book I read sometime last year that explains it well.  In This Present Paradise: A Spiritual Journey with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, author Claire Dwyer writes “That’s part of the power of our prayer, too, to help others, in some mysterious way, to carry their crosses and to trust God in their most cruciform moments.  How often have we heard someone say, “It was your prayers that got me through?’  That’s not just a sentiment: it is a real spiritual exchange that people experience whenever someone carries another in his or her prayers.  It is being part of the Body of Christ, being bound to one another” (138).  As this passage reveals, there is a lot of weight to our offer to pray for others.

When we tell another person we will pray for them, it should not just be a nice sentiment or a fleeting comment that we offer and then never think about again after the moment passes.  Our promise to pray for someone should be just that- a promise.  Because prayer changes everything.  It is the prayers of others that help us along the journey.

Lifting others up to God in prayer is one of the greatest acts of love we can offer.  To pray for others is to carry them and their intentions right into the hands of Jesus.  And if you have been the recipient of prayer from anyone at any point, you have surely felt this in a real and deep way.

​That God would allow us to cooperate with Him in this way is a gift and privilege.  Praying for other members of the Body of Christ has a powerful impact.  Praying for others can help us feel more connected to others, deepen our relationships, and help us grow in our faith.  And when we pray for others, our hearts are changed as well.  Our capacity to love God and others is expanded.

Pray for other people often.  And when you let someone know you will pray for them, remember the power in those words.  May we build up the Body of Christ by carrying one another in prayer always.