Practical Guidance for Praying Powerful Prayers for Others

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3 Steps to Analyzing Effective Prayers in the Bible

In my last blog post, Practical Guidance for More Confidence in Prayer, I shared the Knots Prayer as an example of what so many people deal with in their minds and lives: feelings of not being enough. These feelings often lead us to believe our prayers and relationship with Jesus is not good enough. I provided guidance for praying scripture in order to gain more confidence in our prayers, particularly when praying about overcoming very difficult times in our own lives.

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Today I am sharing some prayers found in the Bible that are very helpful when we are praying for other people. We look to scriptural prayers not because they are the only prayers God honors, but because God gave us these examples to focus our minds, hearts, and prayers on the needs of others.

Remember we do not know how to pray as we ought and the Holy Spirit comes to our aid by interceding according to God’s will (Romans 8:26-27). This great news brings much comfort when we are striving to pray effectively for ourselves or others.

Although Jesus gave His disciples what we call the Lord’s Prayer as a model for prayer, I will not address it because an abundance of information about it can be found on the Internet (see https://www.mydailytribune.com/opinion/8102/a-breakdown-of-the-lords-prayer, accessed September 9, 2020). Instead, I will share prayers found in the Bible that have been helpful in my life, starting with Paul’s prayer for the Church at Philippi in which he prays for love to abound.  I will share with you the value of praying that prayer for others and a way to analyze biblical prayers. When you read your Bible and notice a prayer, you will be able to stop and determine if there is someone for which you could pray that prayer.

Paul’s Prayer for the Church at Philippi

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In Philippians 1:9-11, the Apostle Paul prays for the continued spiritual progress of the Christians in Philippi.

And this I pray:  that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment], so that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value [recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the moral differences], and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless [so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied, you may approach] the day of Christ [not stumbling nor causing others to stumble].  May you abound in and be filled with the fruits of righteousness (of right standing with God and right doing) which come through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One), to the honor and praise of God [that His glory may be both manifested and recognized]. (Philippians 1:9-11 AMP.)

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states, “Concern for others should express itself first in prayer, as one recognizes the importance of the divine factor in any lasting spiritual growth.” In addition to being concerned for individuals, we need to be concerned about the body of Christ as a whole.  If we are concerned, then we need to express that concern in prayer. This prayer is a good model for praying for such growth of individuals, particular parts of the body, or the body of Christ as a whole. Because Paul is concerned about the Christians in Philippi, he prayed for them.

To analyze the prayer, we will ask and answer three questions.

First Question: What does Paul pray for? He prays that their love may abound, meaning that it will be plentiful and rich. He focuses on love because it is the part of the fruit of the Spirit that enables all other spiritual virtues to be exercised properly (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

The love that Paul prays for is not limited to love for God.  It is unrestricted and refers to any continuing demonstration of godly love: Love for God; Love for me (the one praying the prayer); and Love for all people.

Second Question: What does Paul expect to occur when the prayer is answered? He expects spiritual love and maturity to be manifested in the lives of the Philippian Christians through an increase in spiritual knowledge, moral perception, discernment, and glorifying God. When we pray that love will abound in others, we can expect to see a similar increase in their lives.

Spiritual knowledge is the intellectual perception that recognizes principles from the Word of God as illuminated by the Holy Spirit.

Moral perception is practical application of that knowledge to the circumstances of life.

Discernment is the ability to distinguish the good from the bad, even in gray areas.  It means to determine not only if something is or is not harmful, but if it is helpful and then walking accordingly to avoid stumbling and stumbling others. It helps us to stand before God blamelessly, purely, confidently.

Glorifying God is living a life that shines glory upon God, that honors and praises God.  A life glorifying God enables the full fruit of the Spirit to grow and mature.

To pull all of this together, consider a woman you love or are concerned about that tends to respond to life very angrily. If you pray that her love will abound more and more, you can expect her spiritual knowledge and moral perception to increase. Instead of merely knowing that she is angry, she will be able to perceive through spiritual knowledge why she is angry according to principles the Holy Spirit communicates through the Word of God, such as her flesh, pride, or experiences of rejection.

The Bible teaches us to be angry and sin not (Ephesians 4:26).  After obtaining the spiritual knowledge to know the source of her anger, we can anticipate our friend will also obtain the depth of moral perception to know when she is about to cross that very important line between being angry and sinning. If the anger is motivated by her flesh, moral perception may lead her to subject her flesh to the Spirit by pursuing the Spirit (Romans 8:1). If motivated by pride, moral perception may lead her to humble herself before the Lord (James 4:10). And if experiences of rejection caused the anger, moral perception may lead her to accept that God has adopted her as His child (Romans 8:15-16). Thus, she can be guided by the Holy Spirit to manage her anger properly or release it altogether.

We can also expect our prayers for our friend to increase her discernment, empowering her to know whether her own words and deeds, or the words and deeds of others, are consistent with God’s will and teachings. She will then be able to respond to what she experiences through meekness and gentleness (Galatians 6:1, 1 Thessalonians 2:7), not through the experiences of her past or hurtful attitudes of others.   As our friend continues to grow, as her love abounds more and more, we will see her life glorifying God as the fruit of the Spirit grows in her.

Third Question: Who did Paul pray the prayer for?  Paul prayed this for those new Christians that he influenced for Christ.  Note that this is a prayer for Christians.  It is not a prayer for those who have not yet come to repentance and salvation.

Consider who you might pray this prayer for. This prayer is appropriate for all Christians. If the love of everyone in our families and our churches abounds more and more, imagine how that will affect the atmosphere in our homes and churches. Imagine the impact it would have on the relationships among the family members and fellow saints. And consider how our lives would impact the world as we all increase in spiritual knowledge, moral perception, discernment, and glorifying God.

Analyzing Biblical Prayers

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As we went through Paul’s prayer for the Philippian Church, we analyzed it based on three questions. These questions can be asked in any order.

1. What is the person praying for?
2. What are the expected results when the prayer is answered?
3. For whom is the prayer being prayed?

By analyzing biblical prayers and using them as a model when we pray for others in similar situations, we can have confidence in the effectiveness of our prayers despite being weak and not knowing how to pray as we ought.

A prayer for our Christian family members modeled after Paul’s prayer for the Philippian Church might sound something like this: “Lord, I ask that the love of my family members may abound more and more, increasing their spiritual knowledge so they may recognize your principles as illuminated by the Holy Spirit and apply those principles to their lives in order to walk according to your ways. I pray that abounding love will increase their ability to discern what words and deeds are not merely right or wrong, but that are beneficial to their own lives and the lives of the people they interact with. And I pray their lives will increasingly glorify You and the fruit of the Spirit will grow and mature in their lives.”

More Examples of Prayers in the Bible

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The Bible is full of prayers. Since we know we are weak and don’t know what prayers to offer or how to do so worthily, we can learn from those in the Bible. Following are more biblical prayers we can confidently pray for others.

Prayer for Guidance:  In Jeremiah 42:3-4, Jeremiah was praying for the people of Judah (believers) asking the Lord for guidance, “the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.” He expected God to answer the request for guidance; to tell him whether or not the remnant of Judah should return to Egypt.

Based on Jeremiah’s prayer, we know we can go to God on behalf of others and ask God to show us His will for them. We can pray this prayer expecting God to answer it when we pray it for believers.

If you read further you will discover that God answered Jeremiah’s prayer but the people disobeyed the Lord and returned to Egypt. Although this prayer is effective, we must remember the people we are praying for still have a choice about obeying the Lord. We must not have unreasonable expectations that the people we are praying for will obey God’s word just because God answers our prayer. Instead, consider coupling Jeremiah’s prayer with Paul’s prayer for the Philippian Church (that love will abound in the people’s lives in order that they will gain spiritual knowledge, moral perception, discernment, and a life that glorifies God).  When this occurs, they will more likely obey God’s answer to the prayer for guidance.

Prayer for Others to be Counted as Worthy of God’s Calling: In 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, Paul prays for the Church of Thessalonica (believers) that God would count them worthy of their calling and He would fulfill His will and complete their every work done in faith. Paul expected the name of the Lord to be glorified and become more glorious through and in the Thessalonians and they would be glorified in Him according to His grace.

I will admit if there is a prayer I would ask someone to pray for me, it is this one.  I want the works that I do in faith to bring glory to God and Him to complete them.  If you want to support me in this growing ministry, I would ask you to pray this prayer for me.

Other Examples

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1. Prayer for Strength, Power, Understanding, Knowledge (Ephesians 3:16-19).
2. Prayer for the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15-19).
3. Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding (Colossians 1:9-12).
4. Prayer that God be with His Disciples (John 17:6-26).
5. Prayer to Increase and Abound in Love One Toward Another and Toward All Men (results in God making hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13)).

Praying for others is very powerful. Modeling our prayers on those in scripture after analyzing them helps us be more effective and confident in prayer.

I trust these examples of biblical prayers and the process of analyzing them will help you gain more confidence in your prayers for other people.  I hope you will notice the prayers being prayed by the people you are reading about in your Bible. When you read a prayer, stop and analyze it to determine how you might pray the prayer for others.

As always, I appreciate receiving your comments about the Confidence in God blog posts. Please share your favorite prayers in the Bible and how you use them in your prayer life. Together we can build confidence in prayer.