When We Pray - Part 2 [Notes]

What if you only talked to your closest friend when you needed something from them? And what if you only ever talked about yourself? Would that be a healthy relationship? Sometimes, this is how we treat prayer to God—asking for help for our needs but going quiet when things are going our way. Prayer is about so much more.

Join us for “When We Pray” as Pastor Josh Rhodes helps us embrace prayer as a powerful tool to grow closer to God and show love for others.

Today's Takeaway // When we pray like Paul we’ll grow in our relationships with others.

Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
– Ephesians 6:18 (HCSB)

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone
– 1 Timothy 2:1 (HCSB) 

When we pray like Paul we’ll grow in our relationship with others
● Gratitude—thank God for people

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother:  To
the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers. Grace to you and
peace from God our Father.  We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and
of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in
heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth, the
gospel 6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world,
just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace
in the truth. You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow slave. He is
a faithful servant of the Messiah on your behalf, and he has told us about your
love in the Spirit.
– Colossians 1:1-8 (HCSB)

“People must pray, and people must be prayed for. The Christian must pray
for all things, of course, but prayers for people are infinitely more important,
just as people are infinitely more important than things.”
– E.M. Bounds on Prayer, E.M. Bounds, p. 564

When we pray like Paul we’ll grow in our relationship with others
● Gratitude—thank God for people
● Growth—pray for their spiritual growth

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. He
has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the
kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,
in Him.
– Colossians 1:9-14 (HCSB)

“It is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul’s prayers for his friends contain no
appeals for changes in their circumstances. It is certain that they lived in the
midst of many dangers and hardships. They faced persecution, death from
disease, oppression by powerful forces, and separation from loved ones. Their
existence was far less secure than ours is today.

Yet in these prayers you see not one petition for a better emperor, for protection
from marauding armies, or even for bread for the next meal. Paul does not pray
for the goods we would usually have near the top of our lists of requests.
Does that mean it would have been wrong to pray for such things? Not at all. As
Paul knew, Jesus himself invites us to ask for our “daily bread” and that God
would “deliver us from evil.” And 1 Timothy 2 Paul directs his readers to pray for
peace for good government and for the needs of the world. In his own prayers,
then, Paul is not giving us the universal model for prayer in the same way that
Jesus did.

Rather, in them he reveals what he asked most frequently for his friends – what
he believed was the most important thing God could give them. And what is that?
It is – to know him better … knowing God better is what we must have above all if
we are to face life in any circumstances.”

– Prayer: Experience Awe and Intimacy with God,” Tim Keller, p. 20-21

When we pray like Paul we’ll grow in our relationship with others
● Gratitude—thank God for people
● Growth—pray for their spiritual growth
● Gospel—pray for opportunities to share the gospel

Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. At the
same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the
message, to speak the mystery of the Messiah, for which I am in prison,
so that I may reveal it as I am required to speak. Act wisely toward
outsiders, making the most of the time. Your speech should always be
gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should
answer each person.
– Colossians 4:2-6 (HCSB)

I Believe // Where I'm Standing Now // I'm Listening // The Blessing

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