Praying Past Our Preferences

Nancy Guthrie at The Gospel Coalition blog provided some good counsel about how to pray for others. The title of her post is "Praying Past Preferred Outcomes," which gives away where she's headed.

We tend to pray for the obvious—healing if someone's sick, provision if someone lacks a job, a spouse if someone is single, etc. Yet, the Bible calls us to widen our gaze for the real needs present. Here is her list of what we can always pray for. Think of this as what to pray in addition to the obvious, not what to pray instead of the obvious. Of course, sometimes we don't know the specific needs of a situation. In those cases, a list like this can be extremely helpful.

1. His glory on display (our joy and contentment) (2 Cor. 4:10-11)
2. To live out genuine faith (1 Peter 1:6,7)
3. To cause us to depend on him more fully (2 Cor. 8-9)
4. To reveal hidden sin and to keep us from sin (2 Cor. 12:7)
5. To experience that Christ is enough (2 Cor. 12:9)
6. To discipline us for holiness (Heb. 12:10-11)
7. To equip us to comfort others (1 Cor. 1:3)
8. To make us spiritually mature (James 1:2-5)
9. To make us fruitful (John 15:2)
10. To shape us into Christ likeness (Rom. 8:29)
11. To share in the sufferings of Christ (Phil. 3:10)

Daniel