How can I pray for you?

“How can I pray for you?” Those six words can change a relationship and impact a person more than we know.  It is a question that moves the hearts and eyes of believers upward towards God their heavenly Father.  Luke 11:2-4

My friend recently shared about a visit to a church.  She had been going through a significant season of her life where everything had been turned upside down.  She was struggling to make sense of things.  During the church service she went out into the lobby to sit when she noticed a kind-looking woman walking back and forth in the lobby.

New to the church she was still apprehensive to start up a conversation so she just sat there, secretly hoping this woman would come by and talk to her.  What she really was hoping for was an invitation to pray.  She desperately needed prayer.  But as minutes passed, the woman just kept walking a slow pace around the lobby.  Then just as the service let out, the kind lady briefly stopped by to say, “God bless you” and moved to take her place as one of the people assigned to pray with others after service.  

My friend thought to herself, “Oh, how this sweet person missed the opportunity to pray with someone who so desperately needed it.”

But just as quickly as that thought formed, the Lord caused my friend to reflect to her own time serving in church.  How many times had she missed it?  How many times did she walk past people who needed prayer?  And the more she looked back, she could see that she had missed it.

Being a wise older woman to me, she shared the story to remind me to slow down, see the people and never be too busy to ask the question, “How can I pray for you?”

How about you friend?  Are you the type of woman who walks into a room, and says, “Here I am!” or are you the type of woman who walks in and says, “There you are!”

Oh, that we would be women who truly see others, that we may be a blessing and support to them in their time of need.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  Galatians 6:2