What Do I Pray?

[For my concern is] that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One). Colossians 2:2 (AMP)

Prayer. 

How often do we say, "I'll pray for you."? First, do we really pray? And secondly, what do we pray? 

Often the focus of our prayers is for the person to "get well" or their situation to "get better". But how often do we for the spiritual soul of the person? 

On my May 3rd I posted about Colossians 1:11 (Overwhelmed with Joy). Paul didn't pray that the situation would get better, but rather that through the situation the believers would know God's strength and joy. 

God supplied-strength results in not just enduring and muddling through a situation, but rather enduring it being overwhelmed with joy!

Colossians 2:2 shares another focus for prayer, rather than just "get well". The focus here is that first and foremost that their hearts would be encouraged. HOW? As they are knit together in LOVE. That is not the "feely, gushy" love. Rather this "love" is directly from God. It's unconditional love based on God's grace and mercy. 

I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. John 13:34 (AMP)

How often do I pray that "your heart is encouraged as you are knit together in love"? For really being knit together in God's love creates a unbreakable bond and provides the security that allows each to be encouraged and comforted. 

First, I must myself be accepting of God's love, so that I can love others. And loving God begins when I am permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God (Acts 9:31; MSG).

And lastly, as I pray for others, I want to move beyond the physical and address the spiritual, so that the individual can know God's strength and joy in the midst of the situation.