Are we misusing prayer?

You’ve just heard a tragic story. Moved deeply, you reach out and touch the person on their shoulder and say, “I’ll pray for you!”

But you do nothing more than that.

You don’t step into the person’s life beyond the offer to pray for them.

Not a phone call to check up on them.

Certainly not a personal visit to their home.

Not gathering additional support among other brothers and sisters in Christ to help fully meet someone’s need.

Just an offer to pray.

Now don’t get me wrong, to pray for someone is to do a lot! But it’s also one way we limit doing what we could more fully do if only we stepped into the lives of the people we offer to pray for. God often meets the needs of people through other people, and we can make a mess of that sometimes when we are the ones put into the lives of others and the only thing we offer to do is pray.

When we pray for others, we are asking for God to do something in the lives of the people we’re praying for … but what are we going to do other than ask God to do something?

Jesus prayed for others, but we don’t see Him just telling people He would pray for them. He stepped into their lives and served them.

“I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you,” Matthew 13:15.

Scotty