Disciples Prayer Life: Week 11

Asking for Yourself and Others

Matthew 6:9–13 HCSB

“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]

We are expected to pray for ourselves and others.

Much of our prayer, though, might be described as ‘crisis praying.’ We pray for healing, for deliverance, protection, and assistance in difficult circumstances.

We are to pray for those requests.

Looking over these (and countless other passages) Dr Hunt suggests that we can/should focus our requests on the following categories:

Praying for Ourselves:

Daily Needs

Forgiveness of sin

Deliverance from temptation

Guidance

There are multiple accounts in God’s Word of individuals praying for guidance in specific circumstances:

1 Sam 23:2-4; Gen 24:12-14;

Wisdom

Examples include 1 Kings 3:9-12; Rom 16:19; Matthew 10:16

Intercessory Prayer/Praying for Others

A survey of Jesus’ prayer in John 17; and Paul’s prayers for the churches he served, highlight a different style of praying, a different type of request.

John 17:11 HCSB

I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are one.

John 17:15 HCSB

I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.

John 17:17 HCSB

Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.

John 17:21 HCSB

May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.

John 17:24 HCSB

Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. Then they will see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the world’s foundation.

Ephesians 1:17–19 HCSB

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.

Colossians 1:9–12 HCSB

For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

Praying for friends/family/ neighbors/co-laborers

Crisis praying is always appropriate.

However, we should slow down and pray for those closest to us in much the same way Jesus prayed for His followers and Paul prayed for those in the churches he started.

What are the most important needs of those closest to us?

It will take time - and maybe a conversation or two- but our prayer life will be deeper and much more effective if we try and pray for concerns as Jesus and Paul.

Praying for our Nation

Praying for leaders in government service - from the local city, the county, the state, and the federal level.

Wisdom, guidance, heart transformation, and so on.

Praying for the lost

Romans 10:1 HCSB

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation!

T. W. Hunt offers several steps in developing a heart to pray for the lost:

1. Cultivate a deep concern for their soul

2. Pray for them by name

3. Pray in detail

4. Persist in Prayer

5. Thank God for every small step towards Him

Praying for other believers

Pray for ‘oneness’ among believers

Pray for persistence and diligences

Pray for growth in holiness and spirituality