Wrestling in Prayer

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus,  sends greetings. He always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.

Colossians 4:12 NIV

Cathy, a sweet lady in our former church, would call me on the phone occasionally. I can assure you before we hung up, she prayed aloud for me. Although I appreciated her prayers, I felt kind of relieved not to consider myself a prayer warrior since I did not feel comfortable doing the same thing.

In Colossians, Paul mentions Epaphras. Epaphras “wrestled in prayer” for the people of Colossae. As I try to picture that in my head, I think of him lifting his arms up to God for the people, moving to his knees, laying prostrate on the floor, and standing again. I doubt the prayer only contained a couple of sentences. I assume it quite long.

Can you imagine someone wrestling in prayer for you? Can you imagine if you did it for someone else? Who could pray for us like that? Who could we pray for like that?

It did not take me long after we moved to another city to realize that a prayer warrior is simply one who prays fervently. I became convicted about not just saying I would pray for someone, but going ahead and doing it right then and there. Sometimes it would be in person, other times a phone call. Meaningful prayers can also be typed in a text message.

“But, I’m not that great a pray-er! What will they think?” That does not matter at all if we wrestle in prayer for someone and they know it. I have learned they “hear” our compassion and concern for them more than any specific words. They also feel God’s presence no matter our eloquence in praying.

Father, thank you for the ones who have wrestled in prayer for me. Thank for the privilege of praying for others. We know you hear our prayers.

 Susan Partida