Those who pray for others do so because of the love of God that's been showered on them. It's not obligation nor necessity that motivates such action but desire to share with others in doing God's work - together. In his last mission, Paul faced great opposition in Rome from the Jews both in Rome and Jerusalem, but he never stopped praying. But I'm also impressed with the fact he also frequently asked others to pray with him. But notice the last two words of verse 30 are "for me." He was praying with others for himself.

What does one pray for oneself? And why is there a need to ask others to pray with and for him? After all, does the intercessor need intercession? Absolutely. There are things we should pray for ourselves. And unless we have others praying for us, our ministry will not only be weak, but ineffective and burdened with useless weight.

No doubt, one of, if not the greatest, neglects of the church today is the failure to pray. In fact, I imagine there are more individuals praying over lunch in a single restaurant on Sunday afternoon than were praying in several churches an hour earlier. We talk about and even say we're praying, but if we're honest, the amount of time we spend before the Father in prayer is sixty seconds a day or less. Where did we go wrong and how can our sinking ship be righted, you may ask?

Jesus said the calling of the evangelical church should be discipleship where prayer is the dominant activity., but its been turned into signing up new members to a congregation where Christians are in the small minority. Most pews are filled with people going to hell but have been told they're saved by pastors who either don't care or can't tell the difference. Added to the annual number of baptisms, an association then determines which church is growing and which ones are not. If growing, the pastor is most often credited with being the reason, but if not, the congregation is blamed.

What can be done? Jesus prayed in the Garden with his disciples a short way away, asking them to pray with him. He checked on them three times and found them sleeping on duty each time. He was praying the same thing three times desirous others pray with him. But they would not, but instead ignored the Lord until Judas and his new friends came to take him away.

If you want to know the real state of the church to balance the "God is blessing us greatly" assessment from your pastor, I ask you to look around. Does time in prayer account for any significant period of the worship service? If you time most, you'll find it seldom is ever accounts for two minutes or more. Is corporate prayer practiced or is the pastor and his staff the designated priests assigned the duty? Are people stopped in the aisles in small circles praying spontaneously and is the invitational hymn drawn out because of people still on their face before God? Have you been praying together so long at the end of the service that many find the opportunity to leave while eyes are closed to go get in line for lunch?

If I just described the way your church congregation operates, pray with me to make a change in things as two CAN make a difference. Jesus thought so and even though he never saw it before he was crucified, he saw it afterwards and not only was the church changed for the better, the world around them was changed, It began and ended with praying.

Change begins in us as indiviudals as we commit to pray for each other and have "real" church when we come together. That's when we're in one place and have already been praying before we came in. Then worship won't need to be defended by as doing the things associated with worship, no one will be able to deny God is moving in our lives and in the lives of those for whom we pray. God's presence will be obvious and his work will make miraculous normal.

The first church called such things "signs and wonders". Those who deny it still occurs do so because they don't think God needs to show his work publicly and lost people don't need to see such to believe in God. I wonder however, if its mostly because we don't pray and have yet to see God do something we can't fake or pretend?

1. Pray Through the Word - 365 devotionals on the subject of prayer by James R. Green (Neh 10; Rom 15:14-33)
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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