Learning to Pray

One of our goals in the disciple-making process for our students is to see them develop an authentic, vibrant prayer life. As I was thinking through how we practically go about helping that happen, I was struck by something and it's led me to try something new.

There are at least three different times a week that I'm with a group of students where we begin by taking prayer concerns and praying for them as a group. What struck me was that we often hit the typical stuff - illnesses, travel, stressful situations and often not much more. This hits me in stark contrast to some of Paul's prayers that he mentions in his letters.

Since we're called to pray over all manner of things (Ephesians 6:18), we will continue to lift up any concerns on our hearts. However, I'm going to try and add one more thing: each time I want to add that we pray for something that Paul would have prayed for us or taught us to pray for others. Right now the one that's really rocking my world is his prayer for the Ephesians in 3:17-19:

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Paul's prayers often strike me as peculiar because we rarely hear people pray for those things today. Perhaps they're just praying for them in private, but if we're trying to demonstrate prayer and help students grow in it, I think helping them know and embrace biblical prayers is a great idea.