Why should I pray?

In James (5:16) it says “pray for one another”. I think this is such an important message to spread. If we truly love and care about both those around us and those far from us, we need to pray for them. Simply saying “praying” or “on it xx” is not enough if you don’t start praying some of the most passionate prayers of your life. If we say we’re praying we need to approach God and act on it.

Praying is a way of allowing God to enter your life, to act upon both your lives and other people’s. In love, we pray. Love is how we have been saved and love is how we can continue to save others.

Praying for people around the world is so important. It is a way of uniting with our fellow brothers and sisters from all over the place. It shouldn’t matter where you live or where you come from, we need to step up and start praying about all those places where horrific acts are happening, those places that we can’t even relate to.

There’s a great website that I’ve found (http://www.globalconnections.org.uk/prayer). It has relevant, recent prayer points for different places around the world. One I read was about Mindanao in the Philippines; there have been many extremist attacks here. A man was murdered in September due to his faith and work as a church elder. Some have fled the area due to attacks like this but I pray that you would give strength to those suffering, that they would know you are there with them.

I think it is so important to remember that these people are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to show compassion and care for them and one of the simplest ways of doing this is through prayer. So this week, I urge you to pray for someone you don’t know. Read about things that make you feel uncomfortable, things that will make you see the urgency to pray.

I’ll leave you with this song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3NelRb1LY4. It’s a song that I can relate to, because it is so easy to just sing about things and not really think about it but we need to live a life of serving God and stand beside the people who need us most.