Praying with Others: How to Embrace Community

Discover how to embrace community and the benefits of praying with others.

When both of my sons received one diagnosis after another, I felt utterly alone in my special needs parenting journey and, even more painfully, in my faith.

I longed for God’s presence and help, but instead, He felt distant and silent when I needed Him the most.

One day, in desperation for more of God and reassurance I wasn’t alone, I opened up to the ladies in my Bible study, admitting my doubts and struggles in my faith journey.

I longed for someone to remind me that God cared, to tell me they’d be praying for me.

I’ll never forget what happened next.

Those ladies set aside their Bible study materials, gathered around me, laid hands on me, and each took a turn praying for me. They claimed the promises of God’s Word over my faith, children, and marriage.

Warm, salty tears spilled down my cheeks, splattering onto my jeans as I listened to their beautiful prayers and felt their love and support.

In that sacred moment, I felt something shift. Cocooned by the hands, love, and prayers of these women, I experienced God’s presence like never before.

I felt His power, His peace, His love. I experienced the power of praying Scripture and the power of praying with others in community.

That experience taught me an important truth: when we embrace community—when we open up and share our hearts, struggles, and burdens—God embraces us through the love, prayers, and support of our community.

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Praying with Others

I’ve always loved the Bible story of the friends who brought their paralyzed friend to see Jesus (Mark 2:1-12).

Jesus was teaching in a house so packed with people that there was no room to get inside.

But these faithful friends refused to let that stop them. Desperate for their friend to receive healing, they carried him onto the roof, dug through it, and lowered him down before Jesus.

They were willing to do whatever it took to bring their friend into His presence.

And Jesus, moved by their faith, healed the paralyzed man.

In the same way, when we pray for others—when we intercede on their behalf—we lift them up before the throne of God and lay them at Jesus’s feet.

When we share our prayer requests with others, we give our friends and faith community the privilege of doing the same for us.

James 5:16b tells us to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

When I confessed how much I was struggling in my faith to my Bible study group, it brought my struggles out of the darkness and into the light, and it gave me a group of women who were there to fight for me in prayer and to offer their support and encouragement.

Their prayer was indeed healing, powerful, and effective.

There should be no shame in sharing your struggles or prayer requests with godly friends, family members, prayer partners, and church members you trust, and asking others to join you in prayer.

We are meant to encourage and help each other grow in our faith, and one of the best ways to do that is by praying for and with one another.

Jesus tells us, “Truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:19b-20).

When we pray and stand on God’s Word together, our hearts are knit together, and our prayers multiply in power.

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Embrace Community

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 reminds us to embrace community: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”

God designed us for community—for relationships that strengthen and sustain us. We need others who understand or who genuinely seek to understand.

We need friends who will speak life and encouragement into our hearts.

We need friends who will pray for us, lifting us up before the throne of God. We need friends who will stand in faith with us when our own faith feels weak.

We see this in the story of Mary and Elizabeth. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary with the incredible news that she would be the mother of the Messiah, he also gave her additional good news: “Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible,” (Luke 1:36-37 NKJV).

Gabriel gave Mary the gift of community with someone she knew who could understand her situation and support and encourage her.

No one else could fully comprehend what Mary and Elizabeth were experiencing—the wonder of their miraculous conceptions, the weight of carrying and raising these mighty men of God.

And so, Mary set out on a 100-mile journey to be in community with Elizabeth.

Her actions remind us that while God provides opportunities for community, we must boldly take steps to seek it out. It requires effort, vulnerability, and courage to seek the connection, community, and support we need.

These two women grew in their friendship for three months as they prepared to become mothers to two significant figures in biblical history.

What incredible conversations and prayers these women must have had together, as they went about life together and slowly watched their bellies swell with miraculous life that would lead to the world’s salvation.

Praying with others and being part of a faith-filled community is a gift from God—one we’re meant to seek out, embrace, and nurture.

Just like the friends who carried the paralyzed man to Jesus, we can carry each other through prayer, lifting one another up in faith when the burdens feel too heavy to bear alone.