Day 19: Praying for Others
“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.” Colossians 1:9
There have many times in my Christian walk when I didn’t quite know what to pray for someone. I used to just throw around kind of vague prayers for them that mostly consisted of asking the Lord to bless the person I was praying for. I believe God honored those prayers while I was in the process of growing and learning, but I also believe that He took my prayer life up a level when He showed me what I’m about to tell you.
Praying in the Spirit is crucial to praying effective prayers (see Ephesians 6:18). Praying in the Spirit means you’re praying from your spirit, led and directed by God, and it doesn’t necessarily mean praying in tongues. As you enter into God’s presence, He may stir you to pray a particular Scripture over a person’s life, or to bind Satan from hindering them—anything that the Holy Spirit directs you to pray is “praying in the Spirit.”
If you need some good starting ground when it comes to praying for others, you can’t go wrong with the will of God as it is revealed in the Word of God. There are a few prayers found in Ephesians and Colossians in particular that I pray for people. You can find them in Ephesians 1:15-21, Ephesians 3:14-21, and Colossians 1:9-14. Reading these lines alone should show you why these passages make for excellent prayers:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Ephesians 1:17
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:16
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. Colossians 1:9
If you knew someone who was going through a trial of whatever type, praying that God would strengthen them through His Spirit in their inner man (their spirit) would be an excellent thing to pray, wouldn’t it?
If you’re wondering just how you go about praying Scripture, you just have to make it personal. I’ll use my own name as an example:
“Father, I know You know what’s going on with Tammy. I ask you to give her the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you. Flood the eyes of her understanding with light!”
Homework:
Take some time today to read the prayers I wrote about above. Get in the habit of praying them over yourself and others.
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