The importance of praying for others

It dawned on me the other day, for the last 6 months there has not been a day that has gone by that I did not pray at least once.  Whether alone, silent, out loud or with the wife and or son, I have prayed every day.  I have seen many of those prayers answered, one of which took place right before my eyes.  But what of the last 42 years?  During those years I was not very close to God and had not accepted Jesus into my heart.  But prayer, outside of church, was just not part of my regular everyday life like is now.  I attended church regularly, by which I mean on Christmas and Easter and sporadically throughout the rest of the year.  So my question became how did I make it this far, without praying regularly.  In my life I have been involved in so many things that I either should not have survived or at least should have come out far worse than I did.  The only answer that would come to mind was that throughout my life I must have had people praying to God on my behalf.  There just is no other explanation, whether it was my wife; my grandmother; my choir & ensemble director, I may never know all the who were praying on my behalf asking God to watch over me.  If it were not for those prayers, my life would have ended many years ago, many years before I was saved.  My point is, if there is someone that you know, someone that you know or suspect has not accepted Jesus as their Lord and savior pray for them, pray for them often.  It doesn't have to be long and complicated, or even specific, what matters is that you take action and pray to God for them.  Your prayer can be as simple as asking God to watch over the person in question what matters is that you pray.  It made a difference in my life and now I pray every day and I thank God for those who cared enough to ask God to protect me when I wasn't concerned enough to do it myself.