When We Don't Know What to Pray

I was recently talking with a friend about prayer, how God answers prayer, and how we should pray. A few days later, I was reading through Ephesians 1 and found yet again the beautiful prayer that Paul prayed for the believers at Ephesus.

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:15-20)

In this prayer, is a beautiful example of how we can grow—and what we can access by prayer.

• The spirit of wisdom
• Revelation in the knowledge of God
• The eyes of understanding enlightened
• Knowledge of the hope of His calling
• Knowledge of the riches of His glory
• Knowledge of the inheritance of His saints
• What is the exceeding greatness of His power to believers (which is compared to His power in raising Christ from the dead!)

Knowing that we have access to ALL of this should great affect how we pray!

As I reflected on this, I then thought about how I pray for others. Sometimes, I just don't know what to pray--there may be times when I sense a need in their lives (which, by the way, we should pray just as fervently for those whose lives look "put together" as those who seem to be falling apart--Paul often prayed that the churches would continue in what they believed), but other times, I want to pray, but may not know how.

Ephesians 1 and 3 and Philippians 1 all have passages of Paul's prayers for others. This gives me a good idea of how to pray Biblically for someone else. I started making a list from the prayer passages in the New Testament:

I plan on adding to this list as I come across other passages that demonstrate ways for us to pray for others.

Do you have a specific passage you've used before to pray for others?

What verse has God used in your life recently about prayer?