Many people talk about prayer as if the only way to pray is alone in your room, where it is just you and God. Have you ever thought about what happens when you are in a group of people, praying about or for a specific person?
I have pondered this many times over the years. Most churches have prayer lists that are posted so that the congregation can pray for them. It doesn’t matter if you know the person or not, there are studies that show that sick people who are prayed for (even if they do not believe) have a higher recovery rate than those who are not prayed for. It’s proven that it’s very powerful to pray for those we don’t know.
Where I live, when I was in a classroom, part of the morning announcements was “40 seconds of quiet reflection”. I used those 40 seconds each day to pray for all my students and all who were in the building, for a productive and safe day. Perhaps others joined me in prayer, perhaps not, but we had a collective moment of quiet.
Collective prayer has powerful presence in a room when hearts and mind are joined. Last night I attended a fundraiser banquet for a local charity. They are providing a needed and valuable service to our community and I am a happy supporter to their ministry.
When I first attended this banquet many years ago, it was at a church and maybe 250 people were there. In a few years the banquet outgrew that space and went to a bigger church, and is now in a ballroom with more than 700 attendees.
Sure the purpose of the banquet is to raise money, but the main goal is to pray for all involved in the ministry and to celebrate the work that God has done and the lives that have been touched in the past year. It’s pretty amazing. I have watched this ministry grow and stretch and be able to walk alongside people in new ways each year. Prayer changes lives.
What is rooted in prayer will grow. How can it not? When you join with others to pray, Jesus joins you too. So this week, whatever your challenge right not, invite others to join you in prayer, you may find that the answer that you seek comes faster.
