Labor Earnestly in Prayer

I love the people God has placed in my life. I would say, without hesitation, that the relationships I have with my family and my friends are, aside from my relationship with God, the most important things in my life. More important than my job, my possessions, or money. That is why the chapter on Intercessory Prayer in Heald's book "Becoming a Woman of Prayer" hit me so hard. If the people in my life are as important to me as I am claiming them to be, than this chapter should be a refresher for me, something that I am doing right. I thought it would be, but instead I find myself yet again convicted of a lacking prayer life.

In Colossians 4:12 Paul (my biblical crush) says of Epaphras: "always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God." I can't say I remember the last time I labored earnestly in prayer for my family or friends. When my sister calls and says she has a huge exam, I pray. When I hear someone in my family is sick, I pray. When the father of a dear friend is going into heart surgery, I pray. But labored earnestly is a stretch. And the "always" part is a complete miss. I'm more of a "pray when situations arise" pray-er than a "always laboring earnestly" pray-er. I'm not okay with that.

Paul was a committed intercessor. He left behind some awesome prayers to pray for those we want to intercede for. I am going to begin to pray Ephesians 3:14-21 for the people that I claim to be most important in my life. I am going to pray that Christ will dwell in their hearts, that they will truly know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that they will be filled with the fullness of God. Who are you going to labor earnestly for in prayer?

It's not only Paul that calls us to labor earnestly. In John 17:21-22 Jesus says, "that they may all be one, just as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one..."

Jesus is calling us to oneness with each other. "The Lord wants us to be to one another what He has been to us in love, forgiveness, and unlimited concern" (Lloyd John Ogilvie). One of the ways we can experience this oneness through intercessory prayer.

It is a privilege to labor earnestly for one another in prayer- a privilege that I have not been taking advantage of. I don't want to pray for the important people in my life only when situations arise that beg for prayer. I want to always labor earnestly in prayer. I want to pray the way Paul did- by putting greater value in prayers pleading for spiritual wisdom, knowledge, and enlightenment rather than less suffering, material wealth, better jobs or good grades.

Are you laboring earnestly for the people in your life? What would you like to change in the way you pray for others? I challenge you to change it and experience the oneness God calls us to experience with one another!

"As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you."

1 Samuel 12:23