My Responsibility to Pray

My Responsibility to Pray

We live in a time when we are experiencing huge advances in science and technology, which affect virtually every aspect of life. With artificial intelligence, we can get answers to almost any question we can think of. We can therefore ask: Is it still necessary to pray to God for help for myself and for others?

Unfortunately, instead of bringing happiness to humanity, scientific progress has distanced many people from God the Creator. Instead, we see a drastic increase in all kinds of excesses, resulting in an increase in evil, wars, famines, and all sorts of human sufferings. Matt. 24:12-13.

In the Bible, there are many passages where we are encouraged to pray.

Jesus, who knew all things, gave us an example of perseverance in prayer. In our present time, faced with this horrendous rise of evil, we must turn to prayer more than ever before—first of all for the church. What we are today would not have been possible if godly people had not made intercession, day and night, for the work being done among us. The church, which has been given the responsibility of building the body of Christ on earth, has always been attacked by evil forces whose goal is to destroy what is being done among us. We must therefore, each and every one of us, pray constantly for our apostles and the brothers who bear responsibility at every level. Our enemy, the devil, is still very active, and it is through our prayers that we must fight to preserve the church until Jesus returns.

No matter where God has placed you, know that it is your responsibility to lift up holy hands (1 Tim. 2:8) so that we may live a righteous and peaceful life, and that the saints may be preserved. In Luke 11:1-13, Jesus shows us a good example that we should follow: to persevere in prayer. Our prayers have the power to move God’s almighty hand to intervene anywhere on the earth, wherever there is need. Let us take this to heart when we hear that a member is suffering (from sickness, or something else), and not fail to continually bring this before God, who is love and who will surely intervene according to His wisdom. 1 Pet. 5:7-10, Jas. 5:15-16.

The exhortation Paul gave to the Ephesians in Eph. 6:18-20, needs to be relevant to us today. The ministry of prayer has always been of utmost importance, especially in times of great difficulty. In Ex. 17:9-13, we see how important and effective prayer is in verse 11: “and so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.” Many times in our meetings, in much of the literature written by our brothers and sisters, and also through our songs, we have been exhorted to devote ourselves to prayer. Have we really understood what this means? Let us never neglect this extremely important ministry, which often takes place in the hidden. Let us consider, for example, our young people and children, who are strongly exposed to the spirit of the times through social media.

We often have times of prayer together, but prayer is also, and must above all be a work that each of us does individually. The prophet’s statement here is quite revealing: “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.” Ezek. 22:30. Through our devotion, we are surely among those whose prayers God hears and answers. John 9:31, Luke 18:7. Let us make use of this to intercede on behalf of all human suffering in our countries and our different communities. We cannot accomplish much by getting involved in politics or other causes where people hope to find answers to their many sufferings, but we can accomplish a great deal by praying to God and Jesus, the One who has all authority (Matt. 28:18) and who is also able to turn the hearts of kings. Prov. 21:1.