PAUL'S PRAYERS

For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware,

brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.

(Rom. 1:9-13 NASB)

Please read the following passages also. I'll wait. ;-)

1Cor. 1:3-7

Gal. 4:19-20

Eph. 1:15-23

Php. 1:3-11

Col. 1:3-12

1Thess. 1:2-8

2Thess. 1:2-4

2Tim. 1:2-6

Titus 1:4

Philemon 3-7

Are you catching a theme here? Everyone that we know for sure that Paul wrote to, he prayed for, or he pronounced blessings on them. The letter to the Galatians is the only one where he did not specifically say that he prayed for them, but he did say that he labored over them so that Christ would be formed in them. The chances that his labor did NOT include prayer are slim, fat and none.

Now, we could get all religious and say that this is an example for ministers to follow, and that would have some truth behind it, but it would too easily become a rule imposed by the flesh, upon the flesh, to produce an appearance of spirituality.

But take a closer look at those verses. What is really in Paul's heart? FAMILY!

What does family actually mean in this case? Obviously, Paul is not talking about the typical family structure of father, mother, and children.

I have observed that people in certain groups or professions refer to each other as family. For example, to every firefighter, every other firefighter is a brother (or sister). They don't care whether the other firefighters are active or retired, volunteer or professional. Neither do they care about which department they belong to, their particular assignment, experience, or where or how they got their training. They also don't care about each others' race, ethnicity, religion or political affiliations.

Introduce a firefighter from Boston to a Forestry Service smoke eater from the Pacific

Northwest, and they'll immediately see each other as brothers.

Why? Because they have a relationship, a common bond, that goes beyond formal

connections.

I have also seen this and experienced it among military veterans. Sad to say, but I would trust my life to some of the guys I served with in the National Guard before I would trust some TV preachers.

Why doesn't the Church act more like the family it is? We act too much like a natural family: barely functional at best, abusive at the worst. More than one factor probably plays a role in this, but religion and immaturity are most likely the two biggest factors.

What can we do to change this? Maybe start with Paul's example and start praying, by name, and individually, for churches and believers that we personally know. Besides keeping us busy, it will forge stronger bonds of love within and between us.

And while we're at it, let's do the same for the ones we know are operating in or promoting error. That will be the best thing we can do to get them out of it and back into love and truth.