The Apostle Paul asked people to pray for him. Think about that for a moment. The Apostle Paul; the one who saw the resurrected Jesus, the one who wrote much of the New Testament, and the one who planted churches throughout the Middle East and Europe – he asked people to pray for him. And not just on one occasion but peppered throughout his letters in the New Testament are requests that the people of God would be in prayer for him.
I’m not great at asking for prayer. And when I say I’m not great at it, I mean to say that I rarely ask people to pray for me. When people ask me how they can be praying for me, I’m always a bit thrown off and often don’t even know how to respond.
WHY IS THIS?
Pride? Asking people to pray for me means that I’m admitting that I need help, so yeah, pride plays a role.
Insecurity? Asking people to pray for me would reveal that I don’t have my act together and I wouldn’t want anyone to know that.
As you can see, pride and insecurity are ugly close cousins. Some might even say, different sides of the same fleshy coin. Either way, both pride, and insecurity have prevented me from doing that which the Apostle Paul did so frequently – asked people to be in prayer for him.
But more than pride and insecurity, there is an even bigger culprit that has prevented me, and maybe you as well from inviting people into a place of prayer for you.
PRAYERLESSNESS.
It’s difficult to ask people to pray into something that you’ve not been praying into. To be honest, it’s just plain awkward to ask those around you to go to God with something that you’re not even going to God with.
Where there is prayerlessness there will most certainly be a lack of asking people to come alongside you in prayer.
"I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Corinthians 1:4
“Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Ephesians 1:15
“Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.” Colossians 1:9
In short, the Apostle Paul prayed a lot, so it’s not surprising that he also excelled at asking people to be in prayer for him.
“Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me.” Romans 15:30
“And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike.” Ephesians 6:19
If you would, here’s how you can be praying for me...
- That God would continue to cultivate in me a praying life.
- That God would stir within me a passionate concern for those who are far from God and that He’d give me both opportunity and boldness to talk about Jesus to those who do not know Him.
- First love. That Jesus would captive ALL of my heart ALL of the time and that I’d reject and repent of lesser loves.
How about you – how can I be praying for you?
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