praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
- praise God for the privilege of prayer for growing in intimacy with Him and engaging you in the advancement of His kingdom
- praise God that He has established you as an ambassador of the gospel, holding out reconciliation with Him through Jesus Christ
- pray that God would pour out upon us a Spirit of grace and supplication, making us a praying people, a praying church—a mighty force for the strengthening and lengthening of His everlasting kingdom
- pray that we would be devoted to fervent, faithful and expectant prayer for ourselves and others
- pray that God would grant us a profound awareness and conviction of the value of our prayers in His hands
- pray that God would stir us to continual prayer, seeking His glory in all things, at all times, in all ways
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
- pray for God’s protection of us as individuals, families and congregation
- pray that we would find our strength in the Lord and not in ourselves
- pray for keen awareness of the spiritual realm and that Satan opposes us as he opposes Christ
- pray that we would stand against Satan’s accusations by standing in the freedom of the gospel
- pray that we would stand against Satan’s temptations by standing in the power of our new life in Christ
- pray that we would stand against Satan’s deceptions by standing on the Word of God, well acquainted with truth, practitioners of its principles and precepts
submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord... Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish... Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” ... Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,... Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
- pray that we would submit our wisdom and ways to Christ, seeking to honor Him in our roles and relationships, pursuing His goals for us in our dealings with others
- pray that husbands would love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her
- pray that wives would respect their husbands in a way that recognizes Christ’s design for them
- pray for parents in raising their children in the fear of the Lord and obedience to His commands, equipping them to honor God in hostile world
- pray for children to be teachable, growing in wisdom and stature, favor with God and men
- pray for those unmarried to sanctify themselves to the Lord, honoring and serving Him in this station of their lives
- pray that we would do all our work—in the home, school, the workplace, the church— unto the Lord, sanctifying every part of our lives for His service
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
- praise God for Jesus who gave Himself to deliver us from the present, evil age, according to the will of our Father who set His love on us
- pray that God would make us aware of the fallen world in which we live that holds great danger for us, that we might hold fast to Him
- pray that God would grant us a heart of wisdom that begins with fear of the Lord, and would keep us from the foolish inclinations of our hearts
- pray that God would help us to be good stewards of our time, taking advantage of those daily opportunities He gives us to serve and honor Him
- pray that God would direct our leaders for directing us in how best to serve Him and to use the resources He has entrusted to us
- pray that we would submit our will to God’s secret will that governs all things and to His revealed will that directs us in His ways, trusting and obeying Him
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
- pray that God would protect all of us from the sexual sin that dominates and degrades our society today
- pray that God would keep us from the love of money that begrudges God the giving He wants of us, squelches a spirit of thankfulness, and impedes the ministry of the church
- pray that God will help you to pursue the life of holiness He desires
- pray that God’s love for us in Christ would be our point of reference for dealing withothers
- pray that our lives would be living sacrifices, fragrant with love, acceptable to God
- pray that others would see Christ in us and give glory to our Father in heaven
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
- praise the Lord Jesus Christ who subjected Himself to the scorn and suffering of this world for us and our salvation
- pray that we would desire the glory and kingdom of our Lord over our own reputation and personal gain
- pray that we would be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ
- pray that we will all see ourselves indebted to our Lord Jesus, indentured to His service in all aspects and areas of our lives
- pray that the Spirit of God would use us to fill the greater West Chester area with the hope of life bound up in Jesus Christ
- pray that we would be faithful witnesses in word and deed in the life-spheres in which our God has stationed us
- pray for protection from the enticements of the world and efforts of Satan, the prince of this world
- pray that we fix our gaze, as we sojourn in this world, on our Lord Jesus, seeing Him as our Lord, our life, and our love
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption
- pray that you would be constructive and gracious in your speech and not tear down others in your thoughts, words or in gossip
- pray that God would help us to be other-oriented, adopting the attitude of our Lord Jesus, considering not only our own interests but also the interests of others
- pray that God would give you a keen awareness of His personal presence by His Spirit and that your sinful and divisive behavior grieves Him
- pray that God would help us to see where we have been self-centered and self-serving, and to confess and repent of our sin, seeking to change by His strength
- pray that God would give us discernment and concern for the needs of others, and use us to minister to those needs for the sake of Christ
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
- praise God that He has enfolded us into spiritual Israel, the true seed of Abraham, heirs of the covenant promises
- praise God for His sanctifying workmanship of grace in your life, conforming you to the image of His Son
- pray the Spirit would convict you where you find yourself walking according to the world from which you have been taken, not following Christ but instead the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life
- pray that you would be renewed in the attitude of your mind, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, following His lordship rather than the wisdom and ways of the world
- pray that God would grow us in true righteousness, knowledge and holiness
- pray that God would work in us a holy discontent and a profound desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
- pray that the elders of the church will be faithful shepherds, guarding and guiding the flock in the model of the Good Shepherd
- pray for wisdom and diligence for the elders in equipping the members of the church for their service to Christ as His disciples
- pray for the deacons as they carry out their many practical responsibilities for the growth and work of the church
- pray that God would work in all of us those servants’ hearts that desire and expect to be engaged in the work of ministry our Lord has given us
- pray that God would build up the church in spiritual maturity and unity, in active commitment to Christ in daily life, and in growth as He adds to our number those He brings to us
- pray that the Spirit of God would mature us in Christ as individuals and as a community of believers
- pray that those we know and meet would see the evidence of God’s sanctifying workmanship in our lives—to the praise of His name
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
- pray that God will help you to embrace and be directed by your identity in Christ, aware that He has called you to be His and calls you to follow Him
- pray that God will remove the pride that lurks in our hearts and work in us a spirit of humility, a broken and contrite heart that defers to Him and seeks His will and glory above our own
- pray that God will help us to love one another from the heart, with the love He has demonstrated for us and has described to us
- pray that God will help us to be peacemakers and to pursue His heart for unity among our brothers and sisters in Christ
- pray that the Spirit would work in you in increasing measure love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control
- pray that you would love in deed and not merely in word; sacrificially and sincerely in the model of our Lord
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
- pray that God will create in you a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within you, from which a life of obedience and delight will flow
- pray that God will more deeply root and establish you in love—love for Him with all your being, for your neighbor as yourself, for your brothers and sisters in Christ, and for those without God and without hope in the world
- pray that God would protect you from a superficial relationship with Him, and strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being
- pray that God will stir us in the impossible mission of wonder and awe in tracing out the unreachable boundaries of His love for us in Christ
- pray that knowledge of Christ’s love will not only fill our minds, but fill our hearts, constrain our wills and compel our service and obedience
- pray that we will live more a life of power than of defeat and doubt
- pray that we would be filled with all the fullness of God, through Christ who dwells in our hearts through faith
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
- praise God for His love of the unlovable in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us
- pray that we grow in awe and appreciation for the love God has lavished upon us in His Beloved Son
- pray that the fruit of love would adorn our lives as a grace of the gospel, to the glory of God
- pray that we would love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves
- pray that as we grow deeply in the Vine of Life, we would learn to love in the selfless, sacrificial, sustained way our Savior has loved us
- pray that the Spirit would show us where we have forsaken our first love and lead us to remember the love of our Lord, to repent of our sin, and to recover our former zeal and joy and love in Him
- pray that we would learn to love by being patient, kind, giving, forgiving—that our love may not be merely in word but in deed
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
- praise God for His presence, power and provision for us by His Spirit—for His gifts and abilities to us and to our fellow Christians
- praise God that He is building His church, both where we are and around the world, rescuing sinners from darkness and bringing them to His light
- thank God for His Holy Word, the Bible, that gives us the solid foundation of truth from which to grow and serve in knowledge and wisdom
- thank God that He designs to use each of us for His work in this world and especially in the lives of those around us
- look to God for how you are serving Christ with your gifts and opportunities, asking Him to use you for His sake
- ask God to grant you insight into what it means to grow with fellow believers as a holy temple in which He lives by His Spirit
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
- praise God for His sovereign, regenerating work in your life that brought you from spiritual death to spiritual life
- praise Him for His deliverance of you from the kingdom of Satan, that leads to ruin and one day eternal destruction
- ask God to grant you a grasp on how vile was your sin and desperate your need for His redeeming work
- thank Him again for His love and mercy and grace alone by which you stand
- thank God for abundant life now and the sure hope of eternal life to come
- ask God to give you greater understanding that your life is bound up in Christ
- thank God that you are no longer a child of wrath but a child of life and hope
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,
- pray that we would grow to know our God and Father more intimately
- pray that we would grow to know the certainty and security of our hope bound up in the finished work of Christ our Lord
- pray that we would increasingly rest and rely on God’s power at work in us, knowing we can do all things through Him who is our strength
- pray that God would strengthen and enrich your prayer for others and yourself, beyond the “prayer list”
- pray that the Spirit of God would free you from complacency and lethargy to know the greatness of God’s power in you who believe
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
- praise God for His might and wisdom that directs all events for His purpose
- praise God for our heavenly inheritance held for us and us for it
- pray for belief and trust and confidence in God’s providential workings in all things, including those that don’t make sense to you
- pray for a deeper understanding of what it means for our salvation and the salvation of others to be “to the praise of His glory”
- praise God for enabling you to hear and believe the word of truth
- praise God that you are sealed with the Spirit to belong to Him—now and forever
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
- pray for fresh awareness of and appreciation for the wonder of God’s electing love and redeeming grace
- praise God for His incredible mercy to you in Christ
- praise God for the inexhaustible grace He has lavished upon you
- pray that God will give you a profound and painful grasp of your sin that you might be driven to Christ and renewed in the gospel
- praise God that we can know Him as “our God and Father,” knowing His purpose in election for our adoption as His children
- pray that we would be compelled to Christ’s service by overflowing grace and not begrudging guilt
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
- praise God for giving His Son as the true way of life
- thank God for engrafting you into the Vine of life
- pray that the Spirit would work in you an increasing dependence on Christ, leading you to abide in Him
- pray that God would give you a love for His Word and a heart for prayer
- pray that you would be responsive to the Father's pruning of you through the molding of His Spirit and the exercise of His discipline
- pray that you would live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God
- pray that you would be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God
