What Should We Pray for One Another?

May, 2005

by: Jeff Jones

In the Youth Ministry, we have just begun instituting “service teams.”  These are designed to give the students an opportunity to serve one another.  For providential reasons, I was put in charge of the “prayer team.”  Those students who want to be a part of this team are simply required to be proactive in asking fellow students how they can pray for them and then to actually pray for the requests, which is something we all ought to be doing whether or not we are on a “prayer team.”

All this, though, has got me thinking about prayer, specifically about what Christians should be praying for one another.  Looking at our church’s weekly prayer sheet, it seems that the bulk of the requests revolve around physical needs, like sickness, unemployment, etc. But when I look at the Scripture, especially Paul’s letters, I see an emphasis on spiritual needs over against physical needs.  Of course, we should not ignore physical needs (as Jesus himself told us to ask for our daily bread), but it seems to me that praying for the spiritual needs of others is often neglected, even though they are emphasized more.

Let’s look then at a few examples of what we see Paul praying for in his letters:

1. An understanding of profound spiritual truth (Eph 1:15-19)
2. Inner strength to be controlled by God (Eph 3:14-19)
3. A growing love for others (Phil 1:9-11; 1 Thess 3:12)
4. A Being filled with the knowledge of God’s will (Col 1:9-12)
5. Complete sanctification (1 Thess 5:23)

Let the prayers of Paul motivate you to pray more Biblically for others…