“Prayer Changes Things.” That is a statement that many of us are familiar with. My aim is to help us to learn how to pray prayers that will change lives. Learning to pray can change our lives. However, for that to happen, you will have to apply the information that I share with you to your life. In other words these messages must become part of your daily life. We live in a time where lives need to be changed for the good of mankind and to the glory of God. Sinners need to become Saints and Saints need to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ with each passing day.
In this passage of scripture, we will see a prayer Paul prayed for the Colossians Christians. Listen to Paul’s words.
For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things.
That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition].
[We pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joy,
Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God’s holy people) in the Light.
[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins Colossians 1:9-14 (AMP).
The most powerful thing anyone can do for someone else is to pray for them. Through prayer you and I can touch the heart of God who in turn can touch anyone, anywhere regardless of circumstances. The power is not in the prayer itself, but in the power that God releases in response to the prayer. Let me ask you. Is there someone in your life you are praying for everyday? Or is there someone you began praying for but lately you have slacked off in your prayers for them? Do you believe God is going to change someone’s life because you are praying for him or her?
As we look at Paul’s prayer, I believe it is possible to learn how to pray a prayer that can change the lives of others for their good and to God’s glory. Our prayers to see people’s lives changed should not be motivated by selfish reasons. Sometimes when we pray for some ones life to be changed, it is more for our benefit than theirs. Prayer has nothing to do with your vocabulary. It does not matter if you use good grammar. And it has nothing to do with how well you feel about your ability to pray.
To my knowledge, nowhere in God’s word are we instructed to pray eloquent prayers. Effective praying has nothing to do how with how eloquent we pray. Effective praying involves praying the scriptures mixed with faith that God will honour His word. When we pray the scriptures, we are in fact praying God’s word. That is telling God that we are more interested in His will for our lives than we are our wills.
From Paul’s prayer we can learn to pray the kind of prayers which release God’s power into our lives and the lives of those that we are praying for. Paul’s prayer is the kind of prayer specifically suited for everyone who reads it, understands it and who hears it. #ChangingLivesThroughPraye
Blessings!
