At this time of the year, between Christmas and New Year's Day, many people reflect on the past year and begin to think of what they might like to do differently in the new year. We have been doing this by looking at many areas in our lives, including food, meal planning, and exercise, to name a few.
One thing I'd like to do more consistently is to pray for others. Sometimes, it may be a person I pass on the street or say "Hello" to in a store. I find the best time to pray for people I don't know and may never see again is right that moment. It doesn't take a lengthy prayer, and I don't need to know their name - God knows it! Just a quick prayer is sufficient.
"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." Matthew 6:7.
I like to pray those prayers right then because I know that unless I write something down about that person, I will never remember them again.
So what can we pray for those about whom we know nothing?
First, we can pray that if they are not believers, they will come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing greater we can pray for them than this.
Next, the Scriptures give us many things we can pray for other believers. Most of these are best prayed as the Holy Spirit inspired them to be written:
-That they would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
-That the God of peace will make them perfect in every good work to do His will, working in them that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ.
-That they would love not the world, neither the things of the world.
-That they would be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
-That they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
-That they would put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him.
-That they would be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us.
-That they would let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil- speaking be put away with all malice.
-That they may be strengthened with all might by His Spirit in the inner man.
-That imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God would be cast down and their every thought would be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
-That they would be an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
-That the word of God would have a free course and be glorified in their lives.
-That they be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of their minds that they might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
-That their whole spirit, soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a good start, and I thank my husband for first compiling this list. There are likely countless other things we could pray for each other in the Scriptures. Let us begin the habit of when we think of someone, not let it be just a thought but turn it into a prayer. By doing so, we not only join in the Lord's work in that person's life, but we delight His heart as well.
"...the prayer of the upright is His delight."
Proverb 15:8
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