Over many years, our Lutheran Brethren churches held Wednesday evening prayer meetings as a matter of tradition. While some good friends would attend these meetings together, many in attendance, while usually church members, were just acquaintances. Many times this led to prayers that did not disclose the real problems that some attendees were having. There was not enough trust to share major problems with acquaintances. Also, sometimes we wouldn’t share our heart concerns because we were afraid that others would think that we shouldn’t be having problems like this if we were walking close to the Lord.

I think that there is another model that can be used when our prayer needs seem to overwhelm us. We need somebody who we can trust enough to share our burdens. We, of course, can and should cast our burdens on Christ (1 Peter 5:7), but from personal experience I know that it is therapeutic to be able to share my deepest needs with another person who is also on this sometimes difficult journey in life.

Trust is the key to this approach. If there is mutual trust, the sharing of needs on a confidential basis can be a beautiful thing. It establishes a deep friendship and prayer bond between the participants. My wife Dorine does this by telephone with a prayer partner in Vancouver, Washington on a weekly basis. I have been doing it in person with somebody in southern California on a monthly basis.

I ask you, the reader, to consider the possibility of finding someone you trust who would be interested in starting a new prayer tradition with you!

John Heie is a member of the CLB Prayer Team

By CLB Prayer Team

The CLB Prayer Team. On-call to pray for requests from our family of churches. Send prayer requests by email to pray@prayclb.org.

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E-mail: pray@prayclb.org