Have you prayed for someone today? 

Praying for others is one of the most powerful ways we can come together as the body of Christ. Professor Mark Muska says that as we spend our lives praying for others, we can have full confidence that God will use them to carry out His purposes and plans.

“You can have confidence in God. His purposes and plans are carried out in harmony, and in conjunction, with the prayers of His people. Something we have to step back and recognize is that even the idea to pray for someone we can attribute to God moving within our minds and hearts; that we see a need, we’re able to perceive it for what it is, and we take it to God in prayer.”

Professor Muska adds that there may be people praying on our behalf that we are not aware of.

“It might be anonymous people in your church that see the situations of your family, and will continue to take them before the Lord in prayer. This is not something that God is going to leave out of His purposes of His people coming together.”

He explains why this can be seen as harmony in the body of Christ.

“As we pray, God does grant our requests as they were ordained by Him all along. There’s a perfect unity there in the way that happens. Why do we pray then? Because we recognize that God is the one that is performing these things for us.”

Professor Brad Sickler reminds us that the prayers of God’s people are heard through our faith in Jesus Christ, not because of our own power or abilities. This was all a part of God’s plan and His plans will be accomplished by any means necessary.

“The Scriptures make it clear that there is one intercessor between God and man, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is that we all have equal access now to the throne of God; we don’t need to bring in a ringer so that we can be heard by the Lord.”

Professor Muska elaborates on the importance of expressing prayer requests of our own.

“You may be able to elicit the prayers of Godly people if you also express some of the needs of your family as well. Sometimes in the church, we just cocoon up; we’ve got all these burdens and everything we don’t share with anybody, ‘Oh I don’t want to burden them’ kind of thing. That’s what the body of Christ is for, is to be able to come together and share these deep needs that that we have.”

“Don’t be shy or think that you’re a burden, share some of the things. You would be amazed how amazed how many people may come to your aid in prayer before the Lord.”

As we pray, we are lifting up the burdens of others and partnering with God to accomplish His divine purposes and plans.


Ask the Professor: On the third Thursday of every month we invite Bible professors from the University of Northwestern into the studio and open the phone lines for your questions on the Bible, faith, and the church. Call in during the live show, or submit your questions via email on Connecting Faith’s show page.

Ask the Professor: The power of prayer