Pray for one another that we might be healed.

James 5:16  Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

 

Sheltering Tree by  Newsong

WE all need sheltering trees–Friends in our lives that get down on their knees!!

So many struggles in this life! So many have lost hope! Suicide, depression, sadness are destroying lives today.

Jesus is the answer! Christians are needed to be down on their knees, praying for a lost and dying world. But we also need to be actively building relationships with others who need a sheltering place.

Are you the missing friend in the picture frame?

Is there someone you can befriend that needs a place to rest under a sheltering tree?

How can we be active in building these relationships?

Put down our smartphones?

Volunteer at a crisis center?

Call someone and ask to bring a meal to them and just visit with them a while.

There are lots of ways and plenty of places where we might need extend those limbs of our sheltering tree to bring hope to another’s world.

 

Praying for others covers them like the shade of a sheltering tree in the noonday sun.

In Job chapter 42, Job has heard from God.  His friends have heard from the LORD.  Job has repented in dust and ashes.  The LORD has reprimanded Eliphaz and his two friends, “because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.”   The LORD requires the three to offer up a burnt offering and have Job pray for them.  They do as the LORD requests and Job prays for them.  In verse 10, “The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. 

Blessings follow obedience. 

When we come to our Father with hearts that are sincere, God will answer our prayers. God honors the prayers we pray for others.  “The prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the LORD will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.  The effectual fervant prayer of a righteous man (person) avails much.” James 5:15-16  

Father,

I pray we would open our hearts and arms to those who are hurting and without hope today. May we befriend someone who needs encouragement to face another day. Help us to be your arms to love and show them the way to true peace and life. You are the source of all that is good. We thank you that you have provided friends to be sheltering trees. Friends who lift us up to the King of Kings.