Prayer has always been a part of me. I begin and end my day with a prayer.
In my prayers, I would ask God to bless the fruits of my work, guidance as I make decisions, good health for me and my family, for all our needs to be met and to be led towards the right way, etc etc… Seldom do I think about people who makes my life difficult – why pray for those who cause me pain.
One day I got fed up with this colleague who has nothing to do but give stress to the whole office. She would scream, find fault at everything, and make everybody nervous merely by her presence. I began to say a small prayer for her so she’ll somehow give us peace while we work. I did this everyday and guess what happened… she got sick after some months and this made her realize that she’s putting too much strain on herself and she needed to calm down. Now she has more control over her emotions. She still screams unreasonably sometimes but at least she’s become aware and makes an effort to manage herself.
This is the power of prayers. While we always pray for our intentions and our loved ones , let us not forget that praying for the difficult people in our lives will eventually ease our pain and make life more meaningful.
The following article by Rick Warren, the author of ‘Purpose Driven Life’ tells us about the power of praying for others.
PRAY FOR OTHERS by RICK WARREN
“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.” Philippians 1:4 (NIV)
The quickest way to change a relationship from bad to good is to start thanking God for people you are having difficulty getting along with.
Praying for them will do two things -- change your attitude and change them. Positive praying is much more powerful than positive thinking. People may resist our help, spurn our appeals, and reject our suggestions, but they are powerless against our prayers.
What do you pray? The more specific you are in prayer, the more specific the answer will be.
In Philippians 1:9-11, Paul spells out exactly what he’s praying for people. “And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.” (NIV)
These verses give you four things you can pray for people today –
“Abound in love …” Pray that they will grow in love.
“Discern what is best …” Pray that they make wise choices.
“Be pure and blameless …” Pray that they will do the right thing.
“Filled with the fruit of righteousness …” Pray that they will live for God’s glory
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