God-centered prayer is a daily preparation, participation, and use of the time we have, to submit and seek God.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2)
But prayer is not just an individual dependency on God is also about leaning on God together. The church is to be characterised as a people of prayer. We care for each other best when we lean on God together in prayer.
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? (Psalm 13:2)
We are not designed to store up our concerns and burdens within ourselves. We are meant to off-load those things to God. But we are also meant to lean on God with each other. The church family is where we come with burdens and leave with them shared together before God.
Do you share your burden with people in the church family for prayer?
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. (Romans 12:15)
We are part of a family. We are no longer individuals consumed by our own worlds. We are interdependent parts of a body, a family, called to give thanks together and grieve together. As a family we are to come together to share these things, and together take them to God in both praise and petition.
Do you make yourself available to bear the burdens of others in the church family?
Praying together is how we both show and grow in our concern with one another’s lives. Prayer knits our hearts to others in need and increases our concern and eagerness to serve. Prayer for one another is loving, because together we are putting them in the hands of the one who can solve all problems.
May we be a church family who come together in prayer to bear one another’s burdens.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2)
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