I'll Be Praying For You

Has anyone ever told you - "I'll be praying for you!"  How did that make you feel?  Encouraged?  Or did you think that it was just another line to make you feel better?  Is this a phrase you say often?  If so, why?

Recently I read an article from relevantmagazine.com that revealed 5 things Christians should stop saying - one of which was "I'll be praying for you."  This caught me off guard at first because there is no way that I will stop saying this to my friends, family and congregation at Middletown Christian Church.  Prayer is the greatest gift I can give someone because God is bigger than me and still works miracles.  The writer in this article says " Perhaps instead of just letting someone know we'll pray for them, we should offer up other practical ways to serve them in love. Are they sick?  Maybe we need a warm meal. Just got laid off? Maybe they can use extra cash to pay some bills.... It can become almost routine to throw out the prayer line whenever someone shares a concern.  Sometimes we follow through on it, often we don't."

While I agree that in addition to prayer we should offer ways to practically meet the needs of others - we cannot throw prayer out the window.  When I tell someone that I am going to pray for them - I mean it. I believe intercessory prayer (prayer for others) is a gift. This is why I pray with Max every night. I want him to see that prayer is a gift we give others in their time of need. James tells us to pray for each other so that we may be healed. The healing may not come as we hope but I believe healing will be found. The most powerful resource we have as Christ followers is communion with God through prayer.  It is not a last resort.

Evelyn Underhill wrote:  "Adoration, as it more deeply possesses us, inevitably leads on to self-offering. Charity is the live wire along which the power of God, indwelling our finite spirits, can and does act on other souls and other things, rescuing, healing, giving support and light. Such secret intercessory prayer (prayer for others) ought to penetrate and accompany all our active work.  It is the supreme expression of the spiritual life on earth. It moves from God to others through us, because we have ceased to be self-centered units, but are woven into the great fabric of praying souls, the 'mystical body' through which the work of Christ on earth goes on being done."