If one wants a biblical principle of praying for strangers, Paul didn’t know the Colossians when he prayed for them and wrote his letter. They were, in a sense, strangers to him.
There are also many practical reasons for praying for strangers in Hollywood. It seems that there are too many battle lines drawn between Christians and Hollywood where there really shouldn’t be. At the risk of exemplifying the extreme, if Christians do not pray or intercede for Hollywood, what would one expect to come out of this place?
If you pray for someone, you can’t hate them! There is a bond which prayer itself brings – the person who prays with the person being prayed for. In praying for people whom you have only heard of through PR groups, newspapers or magazines, the Holy Spirit has a tendency to present these demi-god, A-list celebrities, directors, entertainers, as human. There’s a danger we Christians can fall into of “de-spiritualizing” people who need our intercession because the world may already deem them successful.
There’s little question that Hollywood needs to change and we know that only God can bring about that change. And that’s what HPN is all about. What better way for transformation to occur than to have that alteration come at the personal level of those “strangers” already working in Hollywood? Won’t you intercede for them, to God, on their behalf?
Celebrities aren’t the only ones who need your help. The Christian “strangers” in Hollywood covet your prayers as well. I covet your prayers. As a representative of a stranger in Hollywood who you don’t know, you can certainly start praying for me. HPN also has a prayer partner program. They team you, the intercessor, with a Christian professional in Hollywood. It will change your prayer life.
By Chuck Hayes, Actor/Writer
