Pray For Me

What am I asking when I ask my brother or my sister to pray for me?  Is that request just mere words or am I truly in need of someone to pray for me? I remember early on in my walk with God people would ask for me to pray for them and sometimes I would and sometimes I wouldn't.  It wasn't that I was being mean, it was just that I would forget and sometimes I just didn't know what to say.  As I began to grow, it wasn't that I forgot. I didn't pray because I would become frustrated because they had not been specific in what they wanted me to pray for.  I didn't want to pray for the wrong thing.  My prayer life wasn't all that and I didn't feel worthy to go before the Father praying for someone else.  Over the years, this has changed.  Now when someone asks me to pray I pray immediately.  Another thing that helped me was developing a better prayer life myself.  But that didn't stop the question in my mind of what I should pray when someone asks me to pray for them.  So I searched the scriptures and came across some guidelines in the book of Colossians.  In the first chapter, verses 9 - 12, Paul wrote these words. 

'For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 

I know. I am still in the book of Colossians and not to far from where I was on yesterday.  The words above are a prayer and I believe with these words you cannot go wrong.  Praying that someone know God's will for their life is essential.  Our lives are filled with both good times and bad, valleys and mountaintops and the better you understand the will of God and His purpose for your life, the better you will be able to handle what is going on.  Someone may be on the verge of making a major decision in their life and so another thing you can pray for is that they live to please God in everything that they do.  I don't know about you but when I am really going through, I am weak.  A prayer for strength is necessary.  And with that strength you need endurance and patience.  I can recall many times during the storm I felt like giving up and throwing in the towel.  You have often heard me say that it was the prayers of my friends and family that kept me going.  See how all these things tie together.  When you know His will through knowledge and understanding you can ask for strength because you realize the power of the God you serve.  You know that there isn't anything that He can't handle.  When you know His purpose for your life, you understand that He is just using this situation to make you better so that you can be a testimony for Him. 

And finally, pray that they never lose their joy, even in the most distressing times.  Pray that they always give thanks to the Father, because it is in Him that we live and move and have our being.  Thanksgiving is a part of prayer.  It is a part of the confidence we develop through the knowledge we obtain.  Circumstances may not change but you can feel yourself getting stronger. That's God. Thank Him!  As Christians we must never forget the God we serve and our faith in Him lets us know that this won't last always.  The next time someone asks you to pray for them, please pray. It is part of our Christian responsibility. And when you don't know the words to say or have any idea what is going on you can always pray the Word.  This is just one example. There are more.  Search the scriptures and find them and please don't forget to pray for me. 

Dear Lord,

Thank you for your guidance.  I have often times forgotten to pray when someone has asked me to pray and I know that is wrong. I have been on the other side and in need of prayer and it has taken alot of courage for me to even ask.  Father, help me to do better and bear my sister or my brothers burdens by taking them to you in prayer. And when I can't find the words to say help me to continue to look to your word for the direction I need.  In Jesus' Wonderful Name Amen.