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I'd be lying if I claimed to be an expert on prayer. While it's natural for me to shoot up prayers for my friends' and family's health or progress in school or work, I know enough about God to realize this isn't all he desires when he invites me to carry my loved ones to him in prayer.
As I've begun connecting the things I readily pray about for the people in my life—their physical health, their success at school, their career advancement—with deeper, more eternal requests, my prayer life's become richer. And I've seen answers to my prayers beyond what I could have imagined! The following three shifts in the way I pray for my loved ones have deepened my prayer life and my understanding of God's higher ways.
From Physical Growth to Spiritual GrowthAlthough I'm not a parent, many of my close friends are. Some of them, such as my friend Nina and her husband, Craig, have taught me a great deal about how to pray for the growing-up people in my life.
Craig entered their marriage with two teenage children from a previous marriage, and together Nina and Craig adopted two children from Russia (a prayer odyssey in itself). Since the first days of their marriage, this couple has prayed regularly for their family. In fact, as parents to two active toddlers and two vibrant teens, they're quite practiced at it! But not only do they pray for their children's physical growth, they pray for their spiritual growth as well. Nina recalls one memorable answer to such a prayer for Craig's daughter Carrie.
When Nina sensed Carrie's growing commitment to Jesus, and saw her consistent participation in church activities, she felt Carrie was ready to make a profession of faith through baptism. "I wasn't sure how to mention it to her, because I wanted her to be baptized out of love for and obedience to God, not to please us," says Nina. "So Craig and I decided that instead of saying anything to Carrie, we'd make it a matter of daily prayer.
"Hardly a week went by before we received a letter from our church addressed to Carrie. Since Carrie was only with us on weekends, we usually opened that kind of mail for her and read it to her over the phone. When we read this letter, we learned it was from the youth pastor confirming Carrie's interest in being baptised!"
Nina concludes, "I believe God orchestrated that sequence of events to encourage me to pray more and speak less, and to pray specifically about our children's spiritual well-being. I also believe he planned it to confirm to Carrie she was hearing God's call and following him."
And so from my friends Nina and Craig, I've learned to pray my young friends will grow up strong and healthy in spirit—as well as in body.
From Intellectual Knowledge to God's WisdomThough I'm not in as frequent contact with my cousins as I'd like to be, I've prayed for them often over the years. Since dispersing to different universities is what initially separated us geographically nearly two decades ago, I've often prayed for their educational and career goals across the miles. Because I didn't know where each of them stood in their relationship with God, I paired these requests for intellectual wisdom with requests for spiritual wisdom. I prayed every night at bedtime that each would choose to build a relationship with him. For a long time I even kept a chart to be sure I covered each name at least once each week.
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