Prayer of the Week

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6.18

Last week I shared some thoughts from this verse on praying in the Spirit. This week, I would like to use the same verse to discuss praying "for all the saints." It seems that this would be a fairly simple task. But it is not. After all, we usually do not even get along with all the saints in our own church. And this admonition is to pray for saints everywhere. All of our anger, bitterness, bigotry and jealousy will come to the fore when we start trying to pray for others.

But here are a couple of helpful thoughts to remember when praying for other believers or Christians around the world. First of all, God desires to love all people through me. The pressure of loving and praying for someone I don't even like is diminished as I allow Jesus to love them. Secondly, every person is valuable in the sight of God. Jesus died for every person. I should be sure to pray for those that Jesus loved enough that he was willing to die for them.

PRAYER: O God, I wish that I could be more loving. I pray that you would help me in this area today. However, until I love people more will you love them through me? Remind me to pray for all your children, and in my praying, make me love them. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.