PAUL’S REQUESTS FOR OTHERS

Last week we looked at some of the habits of the Apostle Paul’s prayer life. I’m so excited to take a look at what he prayed for! After reading through all the prayers I could find, I listed 41 items that Paul prayed for other people. This doesn’t even include His thanksgivings, praises, personal requests, or his commands for us to pray. There are definitely themes and patterns to the requests He brings before God in prayer. Let’s dive in!

Paul’s requests for others are basically centered around two things: God and the sanctification of believers. He did pray for a specific household (2 Tim. 1:16-18) and also for the salvation of the Israelites (Rom. 10:1), but otherwise, all of his requests are for God’s glory or the believer’s sanctification. This makes sense because he was writing letters to churches. Every church and individual member should be concerned with seeking God and living for His glory.

These prayers are centered around God in a few ways. Paul outright asks for God to be glorified (Eph. 3:20-21). He also asks for God’s presence in the churches he writes to (2 Thess. 3:16). But one request that happens more often is for God to be revealed or understood and that the believers would know Him better as in Ephesians 1:16-23. In a lot of ways, this should be where our requests begin. If we want God to be glorified and we do that by obeying and loving Him, it follows that we must know Him first in order to love and obey Him well.

The majority of Paul’s requests are that the believers to whom he is writing would be sanctified to glorify God. He prayed for unity, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, strength, joy, peace, grace, purity, blamelessness, restoration, deliverance, comfort, love for one another, and more! As a believer, don’t you just yearn for some of those things? Now imagine someone was praying those things for you night and day without ceasing. Now remember that you can be that praying someone for a fellow believer. What an inspiring and sobering idea!

It’s also interesting to notice what requests are not included. After reading through Paul’s prayers, I couldn’t help comparing them to my prayer request lists. I work with young adults so the number one prayer request I get is for wisdom and discernment in life choices. The second most common is for physical healing. Since Paul is writing to a larger audience, it makes sense that he isn’t praying for specific physical healing. We know from his thorn in the side problem (2 Cor. 12:7-9), that he does pray for healing on an individual basis, but that isn’t his primary focus. His focus is on praying for sanctification.

So you might be wondering why it’s important to point out these things. Well, reading Paul’s prayers reminds us that there is so much more to pray for a person than just for wisdom and physical healing. People are more than what they do for a living or how healthy they are. People are spiritual beings with a mind and a heart that need healing and strength just as often (or more!) as physical bodies. Believers often don’t stick with prayer request lists because it becomes monotonous and boring. It’s hard to be diligent in having a consistent prayer time when you just spend time asking for the same thing over and over. Maybe it’s time to start praying like Paul and specifically ask for spiritual things. Below is a list of the items I found. I hope you spend some time praying these things for others and that it revives your desire to pray for others!

PAUL’S REQUESTS FOR OTHERS
Glory and praise to God (Phil. 1:11)
Glory to God in the church throughout all generations by working in us (Eph. 3:20-21)
Glorification of God in the Thessalonians (2 Thess. 1:12)
The grace of the Lord Jesus to be with the believers (1 Cor. 16:23; Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23; 1 Thess. 5:28; 2 Tim. 4:22; Titus 3:15; Philemon 25)
That the Lord be with you all (2 Thess. 3:16)
That the Lord be with your spirit (2 Tim. 4:22)
A spirit of unity for the believers (Rom. 15:5)
One heart and mouth for the believers to glorify God (Rom. 15:6)
A Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God (Eph. 1:16-23)
Full understanding of every good thing in Christ (Philemon. 6)
Enlightened hearts to know hope, their inheritance, and the greatness of God’s power (Eph. 1:16-23)
Knowledge and discernment to approve what is right (Phil. 1:9-10)
Direction for your hearts to the love of God and steadfastness of Christ (2 Thess. 3:5)
Strength to comprehend the depth of God and the love of Christ that they might be filled with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:18-19)
Strength with power so that Christ may be in their hearts (Eph. 3:14-17)
Strength in every good work (2 Thess. 2:17)
Fullness of joy and peace for believers (Rom. 15:13)
An Overflow of hope by the power of the Spirit for believers (Rom. 15:13)
Filling of the knowledge of God’s will (Col. 1:9)
Filling of the fruit of righteousness (Phil. 1:11)
Complete sanctification (1 Thess. 5:23)
Purity & Blamelessness (Phil. 1:9-10)
The Establishment of blameless hearts in holiness for when Christ returns (1 Thess. 3:13)
Examination of themselves to see if they are truly believers (2 Cor. 13)
Perfection and right actions concerning church discipline (2 Cor. 13)
Restoration in correct church discipline (2 Cor. 13)
Deliverance from wicked and evil men (2 Thess. 3:2)
Comfort for your hearts (2 Thess. 2:17)
Peace at all times in every way (2 Thess. 3:16)
An abundance of love (Phil. 1:9)
Increase and abundance of love for one another (1 Thess. 3:12)
Fulfilling of every resolve for good and every work of faith (2 Thess. 1:11)
To increase in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:10)
To be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for endurance and joyful patience (Col. 1:11)
To keep their whole spirit, soul, and body blameless at the coming of Christ (1 Thess. 5:24)
Worthiness of the calling (2 Thess. 1:11)
To walk in a manner worthy and fully pleasing to the Lord (Col. 1:10)
To bear fruit in every good work (Col. 1:10)
To be active in sharing your faith (Philemon 5)
Mercy to the house of Onesiphorus because he helped Paul greatly (2 Tim. 1:16-18)
Salvation for the Israelites (Rom. 10:1)

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