"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the 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." (Colossians 1:9-12)

I don't know about you but I often struggle to know how God wants me to pray for others? What does he want me to ask for them and what are his priorities for their lives. This is why I am so grateful that Paul left us so many prayers to guide us in our prayers for our fellow believers. So what can we learn from this example of prayer.

Firstly we see that Paul had a prayerful urgency about him. He could not stop praying for other believers. This is especially amazing considering that he does not seem to have even met these guys and yet that does not stop him praying.

What is it he prays for? He prays that the believers might have spiritual wisdom and understanding. He wants them to grow in knowledge. But not in knowledge only, but he wants them to grow in knowledge in order that they might live lives worthy of the gospel. He wants them to be a growing, vibrant, fruitful people of God. He wants them to be strengthened with power so that they might endure everything, that they might be patient and joy filled.

I don't know about you, but I would love others to be praying these things into my life. So let us be a people that love one another on our knees before almighty God, praying God's purposes into being in one another's lives.

Grace to you from Marcus