Model your prayers after those you find in Scripture.
Here’s an example based on Colossians 1:9-10. “Fill my friend with the knowledge of your will. Give spiritual wisdom and understanding. Help him to walk worthy of you, please you, bear fruit in every good work and know you more every day.”
Use Scripture to guide your prayers for the specific needs of your friends.
For example, for someone struggling with emotional pain, you can pray like this:
You are the God of all comfort! Comfort my friend in her affliction, so she can comfort others (from 2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
As you read the Bible, notice what it says about prayer. Then pray accordingly.
Here’s an example. Martha said to Jesus, “I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you (John 11:22).”
I read that and asked the Lord to make my prayers in line with His.
Someone we love is sick. When we heard, we stopped everything to pray.
I remembered that when my husband was driving, alone, over treacherous ice-covered roads, this friend knelt down in his living room, bent his head to the floor, and prayed silently for quite a while. My husband made it to safely to his destination.
Now it’s our turn to pray for this brother of ours.
May God be glorified once again!
“Nothing pleases God more than praise as a part of our prayer life, and nothing blesses someone who prays as much as the praise that is offered.”*
It is good to praise the Lord (Psalm 92:1).
*Henry Cowman as quoted in Streams in the Desert, p.299.
David said, “The Lord is the stronghold of my life. He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. I believe I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord (from Psalm 27).”
David prayed: “Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Teach me your way. Lead me on a level path. False witnesses have risen up against me (from Psalm 27).”
Speak what’s true about God. And then pray.
Whenever I pray, I make my requests with joy (from Philippians 1:4 NLT).
Joy is the settled and unwavering conviction that a very good God is always in control.*
*Bill Pinalto, https://www.edgebapt.com/sermons/sermon/2019-09-08/joy-in-christ-and-one-another
