I just returned from a wonderful visit with a friend from my childhood. During the time that I was with her, we prayed and talked and spurred each other onward in our walk with Christ. We went to a coffee shop almost every day and prayed for most of the morning. Praying with a friend is so fulfilling. My burden for prayer was lifted and shared, so that it was more than twice the joy. Most of the time when I pray by myself, it’s a mind struggle because my kids interrupt me, or I think of an urgent chore that needs to get started. I have to force myself to set everything else aside to spend time with Him.
Well, this past week was heavenly as far as prayer was concerned. My friend and I have similar people that we pray for, although I have people from the Czech Republic and other pastors and missionaries that I pray for as well. My friend prayed for Christians all over the world who are being martyred for their faith, and for the specific ministries that she is supporting.
Because my private prayer life never gets heard by anyone but God, I didn’t notice that I pray some of the same sanctification issues for many people. “It seems like you could just combine those people so that you don’t have to pray for the marriages of each couple, for example, one by one.” She freed up my prayer time to be more led by the Spirit because I wasn’t saying the same things over and over for each person. Since I had more time than usual with no distractions, it was so much easier to have refreshing new prayers.
By the way, praying with a friend will help you to know if you are praying something contrary to Scripture. You need to run your prayers through a friend occasionally to make sure you want the will of God rather than seeking your own pleasure. Often people pray the wrong things. A more mature believer will pray that a circumstance would cause you to draw closer to Christ rather than constantly praying for ease in your own life.
When you pray with a friend, you can go back and forth if you think of something to add. I loved this! I didn’t mind at all being interrupted when I paused, because my heart was already lifting that person up to God, and I was able to expand the prayer for that person. My friend thought of things to pray for my sister that I hadn’t even thought of. When both people are praying in the Spirit, there is a fervency and depth that is difficult to equal when alone, especially if it isn’t a prayer request about your own life. We often prayed with tears, begging God for a dear friend to repent, or for the healing of deep pain in the destroyed lives of those around us.
I felt so full of the Spirit after praying with my friend that I wanted to get up and start leading people to Christ in the coffee shop. My friend asked several people how we could pray for them, and it meant a lot to a man who was returning to his family, after having spent time in jail and a rehab program. He was nervous to see his wife and kids, because he was now a broken and changed man through the power of Christ. We prayed for him fervently, and I could see in his watery eyes how much it meant to him that we cared enough to pray.
