The Prayer Of Agreement - The One Year Women's Friendship Devotional

The Prayer of Agreement

[Jesus said,] “If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” Matthew 18:19-20

Five women showed up for the first Moms In Touch meeting in Carrollton, Texas, and quickly discovered that four of them had a child with special needs. None of the women had ever had someone to pray with about their child’s disabilities. My, how the mascara ran that day! Anxieties melted away as they experienced the incredible feeling of bearing one another’s burdens, and they went away feeling that God had given them something they really needed: a sense that they weren’t alone. In the next few years of weekly prayer together, they saw God answer many prayers for their kids.

I love how today’s verses underscore the importance of praying together in agreement with other believers. It’s as if the Lord is saying to us women, I have a secret for you! If you’ll take time to come together and get in agreement with my will, joining your prayers like a symphony, I’ll be right there with you, and I will ramp up the power! Just as those Texas women experienced, God offers us a great gift in the prayer of agreement. As this verse tells us, while there is power in an individual’s prayer, united prayer has even greater power. In addition, group praying gives us the opportunity to put into practice Paul’s admonition to “share each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). When our hearts beat in united prayer, our love for one another and Christ increases, our faith grows, and most important, God’s will and purpose are accomplished. May each of us, in every season of life, have and be faithful prayer partners and experience God’s power as we pray in agreement with others. —CHERI

Father, you know the problems that stress us and press in when we are alone, until our spirits are almost crushed. Thank you for giving us one another and the prayer of agreement, which has such power. Please provide a prayer partner for me and for all those I hold dear.

Praying with other people gives us new sisters . . . in Christ. The more we pray with other people the more we begin to trust them, and the more honest we all can be about our real problems, not just surface ones. Genuine togetherness is a God-given state, and hearts are joined in his presence. We can depend upon that presence because he has said, “I am right there with them.”

—ROSALIND RINKER (1907–2002), MISSIONARY, AUTHOR, AND CONFERENCE SPEAKER