God's Gift of the Praying Friend

I picked up one of my old Bibles today. It was missing its cover and “In the beginning” began instead with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19. The page was crinkled, the margins were ink-stained, yet the story began, fresh as it’s been since the “two angels arrived at Sodom” and found Abraham’s nephew Lot “sitting in the gateway of the city” (19:1) that God was going to destroy.  

I texted a friend of mine yesterday. She’s a trustworthy prayer warrior of a woman who loves the Lord and lives that way, and that’s why I asked her for prayer. It was one of those times when you knew you needed someone else to pray with you, but you weren’t exactly sure why. More of a nudge, than an understanding. A time to shuck aside reason and simply ask for help. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20 KJV).

She prayed immediately, but I knew she would. I’ve known her for over forty years. I’m not praising her, but God who is in our midst. I am, however, appreciating her. She’s God’s gift of the praying friend.

“Dear Jesus,” she prayed. “I pray for my friend who is feeling the grip of the evil one. Cover her with your love and protection. Be her mighty defender, her shelter in the story. And I ask that she see your goodness in the land of the living. Amen.”  

Her prayer rose to the throne room, but it still hovers around in my study, and it floats out of Lot’s story, too. The city of Sodom was going to explode in a fiery ball of smoke, and Lott was clueless. But Abraham had asked God to protect Lot, and God did. The gift of a praying uncle.

We don’t always know. I think that’s my point. We don’t always know why we need prayer or what we’re praying for or even how to phrase our prayer request. And that’s okay.

Lott’s life was a mess, but God was merciful, and the angels “grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city” before the LORD destroyed it with burning sulfur, leaving only “dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace” (19:16, 28).

I knew that God heard my prayer, but I also felt the Spirit’s prod to ask a friend to pray with me. And soon there was a glimmer of peace in the darkness, an answer to our prayer, but there was understanding, too, for God’s “goodness in the land of the living” that I saw included His gift of a praying friend.

Thank you, Lord, for friends.

Thank you, Lord, for prayer.

And thank you, Lord, for the gift of praying friends. 

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20 KJV).