In my last post I focused on our believing that God will answer our prayers and how He loves to bless His children with spiritual gifts. A comment I received on the post brought up the topic of praying for others. I thought it would be worthwhile to go into praying for others from a biblical perspective. It is common when we go to pray for others to pray for their temporal needs. We pray for school, work, money, relationships, and other similar things. This is not necessarily wrong, but as I said in my last post we must be careful of the balance we have in our prayers. If we look at how Paul prayed for the different churches he wrote to the central focus of his prayers is for their love to grow and that they would come to know Christ more.
Ephesians 1:15-18
"For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you"
Do we pray this way for others?
3:14-19
"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Do we pray that God will strengthen them and that they will know Him more?
At the end of Ephesians Paul gives final instructions on prayer and asks for prayer for himself.
6:18-20
"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."
Do we pray that others would be bold in sharing the gospel?
Paul begins many of his letters by saying how thankful he is for the believers. He is continually thankful for the work that God is doing in them.
Colossians 1:3-4
"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people"
Philippians 1:3-5
"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,"
Philemon 1:4-6
“I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ."
Do we give thanks for the work God is doing in others?
The central focus in Paul's prayers is the gospel. He prays that the believers would know Christ and increase in their love towards Him and those around them. I ask again, do we pray this way? David Platt (the author of Radical) wrote an excellent explanation on the purpose of prayer.
"Prayer is really more, designed to be more than just this thing where we ask God for things. We need to explore some of the depths of what prayer is instead of just settling for that.
Primary purpose for prayer is to:
1. express the depth of our need for God
2. explore the mystery of intimacy with Him
3. experience the power of being used by Him
The power of prayer in and of itself is useless, but the power of people who connect with all mighty God is unstoppable!
Desire is the secret of Prayer:
1. Make your wants God’s wants and
2. then ask for whatever you want
That’s how prayer WORKS."
I love the passage at the end of James. It shows how powerful prayer is. Verses 17 and 18 blow my mind every time that I read them. Elijah, who was just like us, prayed and the weather changed for over three years. How amazing is that?
5:13-18
"Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore 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.
Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops."
I encourage you as you go about your week to lift your brothers and sisters up in prayer. Do not just pray for their temporal needs but more importantly that the Father would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that they would know Him better.
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