Yesterday I shared a story from my past that made me take a hard look at how I had been praying.  The Lord led me to the book of Colossians and there I read what Paul wrote to those believers and how he included them in his prayers.  What I read there convicted and humbled me and I realized that I needed to be praying in exactly the same way.  Let’s look at those verses from Colossians Chapter 1.

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

Paul, and those with him, had heard good things about the believers at Colossae; Paul had a fervent love for those men and women.  Paul wanted them to know that he and his fellow believers were praying for them without ceasing and that they were on his mind and heart on a daily basis.  Paul was consistent in his prayers and, like him, we must be also.

Paul tells them that he is interceding on their behalf that they be filled with the knowledge of the will of God and that they not lack for wisdom and spiritual understanding.  In other words, Paul’s greatest desire for his spiritual children was that they know the will of God and that they be able to execute it with wisdom.

The first time I read that it was like a giant light bulb clicked on in my head.  The greatest prayer I can pray for another believer is that they be filled with the knowledge of the will of God and that they have the wisdom and understanding to carry it out!  Those words were powerful to me then and they are still powerful to me now.

10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Verse 10 is incredibly encouraging to me.  What does a man or woman look like who walks worthy of the Lord and is fruitful in good works while increasing in the knowledge of God?  It looks like a man or woman that is blessing everyone they come in contact with and a person that I very much want to be around!

Praying this for someone that you know is putting that person on the fast track to Godliness.  Prayer is powerful and this prayer in particular speaks to a life that is owned by God and lived for God. In my mind I picture a walking, talking, heavenly fruit tree that gives blessed shade and the fruit of good works while lifting their branches skyward in constant praise to the Father.  Oh that we would pray for more people like this!

11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

Paul knows that anyone who is living a life so visibly unto God will come under Satanic attack and that Satan’s greatest weapons are his ability to distract, discourage and accuse.  Paul’s prayer here is for strengthening and for endurance for the trials that will inevitably come, but the news here is still good.  This strengthening comes from God’s glorious power (can you imagine the magnitude of that?  I want to see it!) and includes joy.

We can pray that our brothers and sisters be strengthened and that there might be joy in suffering.  And the amazing thing to me is that this is a prayer that God loves to answer!  God loves to say to His children “This suffering has no power over you, feel my strength and joy and watch as it fills your life”.  I want that to be true for everyone that I know and love, don’t you?

12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

Paul begins and ends with thanks.  As always, his focus was on thanking God for His great love and redemption plan.  As we thank God, our focus shifts to Him and away from ourselves and our circumstances.  Thankfulness should be our first and last resort because even if we were to lose everything we had on this earth in an instant, we would still be Children of the Most High God who were bought with a price and redeemed forevermore.

Your salvation is assured.  Your inheritance is being prepared even now.  God wants to lead you home but before we get there we have work to do, and no work for the Kingdom is more important than prayer.

These last 2 days we have focused on prayer for other believers.  Prayer is such a big, important subject that it would be impossible to overstate it and there are other types of prayer yet to be examined.  We will return to the subject of prayer very soon as we continue our Prayer Closet Warrior Training and I hope that God has blessed you as much as He has blessed me through these scripture verses.

If this has challenged you, affirmed you or helped you I would love to hear from you and what God is doing in your life.  Let us always encourage one another!

Do you pray often?  If so, do you pray for other believers?  And when you pray for other believers, how do you pray for them?  Hopefully you are better at it than I used to be.

I used to primarily pray for the safety of my family and friends.  “Lord, keep them safe as they go today” or “Lord, bring them back safely”.  These are good prayers and when prayed genuinely, God hears them.

Sometimes I would also pray for traveling mercies for those who were going on a trip.  This is closely related to the prayer for safety but also includes (I believe) a prayer for ease of passage and a peaceful journey.  This is also a good prayer.

Every once in a while I would see someone hurting, sad or depressed and I would pray that God would comfort them and ease their sorrow.  God comforts His children and we are blessed when we pray for others in this way.  Once again, this is a good prayer.

These three types of prayers made up the great majority of my prayers for others for many years.  I was genuine and prayed from the heart and I believe God heard and answered them.

And then something happened that rocked me to my core and completely changed the way that I prayed for others.

There was a man that I greatly respected.  He held a position of authority in his church and was a pillar in his community.  I had enjoyed his hospitality on occasion, I liked being around him and outwardly he had everything going for him.  When he was arrested for breaking the law by falling to sexual temptation it was like someone had knocked the very breath out of me.

As I began to pray and read God’s word for comfort I came across the book of Colossians.  Right away the Spirit began to speak and to convict me through Paul’s words.

“We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you” (Colossians 1:3 NKJV) is how Paul begins.  Thankfulness is so important in the life of the believer and we are never more open to God’s instruction than when we come into His presence with a thankful heart.  Paul knew this and his letters are filled with thankfulness, just as our lives should be.  Notice at the end how Paul says he is praying always for his friends in Colossae.

9 “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

In four little verses Paul shares great wisdom with us.  Paul gives us the recipe for how to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  These four verses are what so convicted me and I realized that I had not been praying as I should.  I don’t think I had ever prayed a prayer like that one in my entire life!

While I had not encouraged this man in his sin I also had not been doing my duty to pray for him as a leader in the community and in the church and more importantly, as a brother in Christ.  I was not lifting my brother up as I should and I share in his failure and his sorrow.

Brothers and sisters, we need each other.  We need to encourage one another, we need to teach and admonish one another and most of all, we need to pray for one another.  We need to take Paul’s prayer for the church at Colossae and make it our own.  Can you imagine the net effect this would have on the body of believers if we all committed to praying for each other in this way?

In tomorrow’s post we will go deeper into those three verses in Colossians and examine them closely.  What elements, exactly, make Paul’s prayer so very powerful and so very effective?  And how can we take those same elements and apply them to our prayers today?

For now, I ask that you think about the way that you pray and especially the way that you pray for others believers.  God can use your prayers to meet needs and to perform powerful acts of righteousness here on earth, but only if we are praying for the right things and in the right way.

On Beyond Evangelical, the author, Frank Viola made a post recently about goal setting and how to include those in your prayer life.

I am very familiar with prayer requests.  They are a regular part of my daily prayers and they are also a regular part of my church experience in both Sunday School and Worship Service.  The idea of the prayer request is that you not only petition God for your request but you also voice your request to other believers and ask that they pray for your request as well.

This is a Biblical practice.  14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:14-16)

Frank Viola’s idea and practice is to take this one step further.  He actually has a journal that he uses to write down his dreams, his goals and his prayer requests and while he is more goal oriented that I am at the present, his idea has a lot of merit.

I now have purchased a small, black journal that I have begun to write down specific prayer requests and also specific praises as God has answered prayers I made before I got the journal.

Right now it is just the first page on which I am working and there are just 6 prayer requests and 2 praises listed.  I am starting small but I am already excited about what God is going to do with this humble beginning.

I know that by being specific in my journal and in my prayer requests that I can watch, over time, how God is answering my prayers and also how He is moving and working in me.  Perhaps some of the things I have written down are not as important as I think they are.   Perhaps I need to be faithful and patient in my current circumstances before God is ready to show me other things.  Perhaps the answers will come shortly or in many years down the road.

The point of this experiment is not the ultimate answer or answers although that is a great benefit.  The point of this experiment is that I be watchful, continuing in prayer and expecting God to show up and be amazing.  And most of all, that I be ready and waiting for His provision.

Do any of you keep prayer journals or a written record of your prayer life?  I would love to hear about it if you would not mind sharing.  Your comments, questions and thoughtful responses are always appreciated.