more thoughts on prayer...

I struggle sometimes. Sometimes the load feels crushing, and yet it is I who must bear it. There is no more delegation left to do, or, when it comes to burdens on the heart, I cannot give them away, get them done, or get them over with. I've written recently about the importance of listening in prayer. Tonight, I find it difficult to overemphasize the importance of praying for others - our brothers and sisters, in matters small and large in their lives and in their ministries. I am realizing that I need my brothers and sisters, not only for the encouragement they bring me, the lessons they teach me, the practical ways they serve me, but I need them to offer prayers to God for me. I need them to offer those prayers. I am dependent on those prayers. The struggles I face - struggles which might be unique in minute details but by no means special in terms of what is common to man - remain toilsome struggles as long as I keep them to myself, even if I do silently offer them to God. Often, relief only comes when I make the request for others to pray on my behalf. Why? Why would the prayers of my brothers and sisters be more effective than my prayers alone? I have not studied this issue extensively, and frankly, I'm not going to take the time tonight. However, I have a hunch. In order to ask for prayer from others, I have to make myself vulnerable. I have to admit my dependency on something besides myself. I can't follow Christ in a vacuum. I can't be a Christian in isolation. I need others. And God designed me to need others. And prayer is one avenue through which I become the most vulnerable, the most dependent, and the most grateful and thankful towards others. To know that I would have a difficult, painful time making it through my day if it were not for the faithful prayers offered by others in my behalf increases my love for those people, the connection I feel to them, and strengthens me and my love for God and His church. Wow, God. You get more beautiful every day.