Focal Passage: Colossians 1:3-12
Prayer is often overlooked in the life of the believer. This past year on graduation Sunday, we wanted to encourage our students to understand the beauty and love a local church has for them. We asked the church members to please stand if they had been a part of any of these things: giving to the youth program, helped at VBS, taught a Sunday School class or prayed for them.
As we made it through the list, we had the students look behind them. Nearly everyone in the church was standing. This is part of the beauty of the local church, you are never alone.
Some of us don’t have the money or energy to do some of the things we used to do. However, all of us have the ability to pray.
As believers we should have a commitment to pray for the salvation and spiritual growth of others. Paul tells the Colossians that, “We always thank God … when we pray for you.” We should be praying with thanksgiving for other believers.
As believers we should also be praying for those who minister and spread the gospel. We have missionaries that need our prayers as they seek to do what God has called them to do. We also should be praying for our pastors. Nothing is more encouraging to a minister than for them to have a church member ask them, “How can we be praying for you?”
As believers we should also be praying for the spiritual growth of believers. Being committed to prayer should be as natural as our commitment to breathing air.