I often struggle to pray. I struggle to sit still. I struggle to get my thoughts in line and to talk to God. But I struggle even more to keep quiet and to listen what God has to say. I often get up from praying feeling that I haven’t achieved anything.

It is obviously related to my ADHD and maybe the rest of the alphabet as well.

When I feel so discouraged after praying, I am really grateful for the other people who are praying for me. I know family and friends pray for me every day. If it wasn’t for them, I might have lost the plot already.

I do experience the power of prayer. I mean, the power of other people’s prayers. To pray for others is certainly effective. We must realise this and also know that each of us has a calling to pray for others.

That’s what Paul does: ⁴Every time your name comes up in my prayers, I say, “Oh, thank you, God!” I keep hearing of the love and faith you have for the Master Jesus …

Paul strongly believed in prayer and praying. Apart from his writing, he knew there was another way of helping the church of Christ, and that was to pray regularly to God for each leader and each congregation. He carried the church with his prayers. He called for reinforcements. He asked that they would keep going in the right direction, and obviously he prayed that each one would be protected in the wild world.

At the same time, he gave thanks. He didn’t thank Philemon for succeeding in making such a difference in God’s new world. No, he thanked God, because God made it possible for Philemon to make such a difference.

It is God who protected. It is God who gave him wisdom. It is God who put new plans in his head. It is God who gave him new strength to keep going and try again. Therefore, all the glory goes to God. And that is the right way, because if it wasn’t for God, Philemon and nobody else would have made it.

We must learn from Paul. We must realise that we have been tasked to pray for our loved ones. Everyone really needs prayer, because all of us are so busy trying to keep our heads above water that we don’t always have time to pray or to make time to pray. Sometimes life just gets too chaotic and we’re at a place where our faith blows out the door. Yes, there are times when you simply cannot pray.

This is exactly when we drive on the fuel of other people’s prayers.

Let’s learn a really good lesson here. Let’s pray for one another. Let’s make time and make a list of everybody we know, so that we can pray for them often. Everybody really needs it. And, yes, remember to channel all your gratefulness to God, because it is only through his grace that we people can get to do something.

All glory to God!

Scripture
Philemon 1:4-7

Reflection
Do you believe in prayer?
For whom can you intercede?
Remember to thank God.

Prayer
Lord, I want to thank You for each and every person who intercedes for me. It would have been hard going without their prayers. Please help me remember that I can also intercede for others. May we glorify Your Name all the way! Amen.