If you go into Great Yarmouth Market Place on the first and third Wednesdays and Saturdays every month between 11am and 1pm you will see a group of Christians from various churches offering to pray for people. We offer to pray for the sick and for any need anyone might have. Over the last few months we have seen people healed there and then as we have prayed for them, and others returning to say they are now better after we had prayed for them. We have prayed for people's situations and circumstances and again have had some return to tell us, or have emailed that these have now improved or been resolved altogether. We have prayed for those who have lost loved ones and were struggling with life as a result, and it has been great to offer love and comfort to them

 

Why do we do this? Simply because Jesus tells us to. He commands us to go into the world and preach the good news and pray for the sick. Whenever God tells us to do something it is not just to tell us what to do, but in order to reveal His heart. So when He tells us to pray for the sick it is because His heart is for those who are suffering. When he tells us to “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” it is because He has a heart for those who are hurting or are on the fringes of society. When he says He wants to “Bind up the broken hearted...comfort those who mourn...give gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” again He is showing His love and compassion to a lost and hurting world

 

Just this week I had a chat in the Market Place with a very nice young couple who were both out of work. I told them that God loved them and is interested in every aspect of their life, even their job situation. They allowed me to pray for them that they will find work. Why did I do this? Because I sincerely believe that God loves them and is interested in them. In fact God loves us all and proved this by sending His Son Jesus into the world to die on a cross for us so that if we put our faith in Him He will forgive our sins, put us right with God and give us eternal life. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” The Bible also tells us “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”