Teach Me

Yesterday I received an email from a beloved friend asking me to pray for fellow workers who are at risk of losing their lives for following Christ.  As he wrote, he kept pausing to weep.  My heart has been tenderized to such requests through things that my family and I have suffered.  So I tried to pray.  But I had trouble knowing just how to pray.  So today I asked God to teach me to pray for friends and fellow workers who are suffering persecution, mistreatment, sickness, unemployment and other difficulties. 

God loves to teach us to pray.  Here is what He taught me to pray today:

I pray that God will give you extra grace and peace in your extraordinary need: May you receive extra grace, extra assurance that God is for you when you feel like He's forgotten you.  May you experience extra peace, an extra sense of inner well being although trouble surrounds you.  (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:2)

I pray for God¹s strength to fill the gaps around your weakness.  May you come to know by experience that He does give strength to the weary, that to those who lack might He does increase power, that the poor in spirit truly are blessed, and that His strength really is made perfect in our weakness. (Isaiah 40:28-31; Matthew 5:3-11; 2 Corinthians 12:9)

I pray for endurance when you feel ready to give up.  As you persevere through His strength, may God refine you beautifully.  As you are being tested, may you come out like refined gold.  (Job 23:10; James 1:2-3)

I pray for extra wisdom from above when you don't know what to do.  May your mind be prepared for every challenge by remembering what it True.  May your thinking be very clear, cutting through the fog so that you can follow Him fully.  (James 1:2-5; 1 Peter 1:13)

I pray that you will respond to your difficulties like Christ responded to His, with humility, patience, and profound trust in the Blessed Controller of all things.  May others see Christ in you.  (2 Corinthians 2:14; 4:6-10; 16-18; 1 Peter 2:12-3:22)

I pray that God will display His beauty and power by delivering you from this trouble, like He has done for His people so many times.  I pray that the Master of Breakthrough will breakthrough sooner rather than later, and that when He does so everyone will recognize that there is a God in heaven Who cares for His people.  (Exodus 14:30-15:20; 2 Samuel 5:20; 1 Kings 8:41-43; Luke 7:22; Acts 12:5-24)

In Jesus' name, Amen!