1 Timothy 2:1
First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone.
First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone.
Prayer is an earnest, sincere desire to communicate with God. It's not about satisfying a greedy, licentious heart -- which said prayer could never reach God's ears -- but a wholeheartedly in love with our heavenly Father communication. Seeking His perfect will in every situation in which we have placed.
Here Paul is urging Timothy, and us, to urgently approach God with our petitions (deep personal needs), our prayers (faith-filled conversations rooted in faith that God will not only hear us, but answer us); our intercessions (interventions that align our hearts with God's perfect will), and thanksgiving (gratitude for God's grace and His many blessings which He bestows on us; worship and adoration for Who God Is).
And when we approach God to tell Him all of our deep personal needs and requests, it is not just for ourselves we are praying, it is for everyone. Not just our families, not just our friends, not just our acquaintances.
But we pray for the strangers in our communities, for the enemy at our gates, for lost, the lonely, the grieving. We pray for our city's leadership, our county leadership, our state leadership, our country's leadership. We pray for lawmakers and law enforcers. We pray for doctors and nurses and emts. We pray for the people who have wronged us, for people we have wronged.
We pray for their salvation, the most urgent prayer request of them all. We pray Ephesians 3 over all of the people I have listed and any I may have inadvertently omitted.
What Scriptures or verse(s) do you use specifically when you pray the Scriptures?
