I confess…I’m not a great pray-er. Nowhere close to Martin Luther, for example, who started each day with three hours in prayer. Unless it was going to be a busy day. Then he spent four hours. Prayer is a challenge, one aspect of which is, what do we pray for?

Yesterday, my new neighbor and old friend texted and asked if our air conditioning was in yet. I’ve lived in Colorado 36 of the past 41 years and never had a/c, but we are having it installed in the new house. They were supposed to start the day we closed, June 25, and be done by June 30. Today is July 9, and they’re still not done. So yesterday, I texted that maybe we weren’t praying hard enough. After all, we have:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4.6, ESV, emphasis mine)

Seemed pretty important until we got a text yesterday that my friend Rick in Phoenix has been in ICU with a heart attack since last Thursday. Rick! We met in Technical Instructor Course at Keesler AFB in 1971 and subsequently moved to a house around the corner from theirs. Rick is my age exactly: we were born 8 days apart in December 1946. We’ve stayed in touch all these years, and now he’s touch and go. He’s one of the fittest guys I know, suffering the heart attach while on a bicycle ride. Praying for Rick suddenly seemed WAY more important than praying about the “first-world” problem of a delayed a/c installation.

But the Apostle Paul didn’t seem to spend a lot of time praying about such things even though praying for the sick is certainly Biblical:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (James 5.14, 15, ESV)

O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. (Psalm 30.2, ESV)

Paul prayed for the increased maturity and fruitfulness of people. See, for example:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1.9 – 11, ESV)

See also Ephesians 1.15 – 23, 3.14 – 21, and Colossians 1.9 – 11.

Paul also prayed for the salvation of entire people groups:

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. (Romans 10.1, ESV)

He prayed for effectiveness in sharing the gospel:

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. (Colossians 4.2 – 4, ESV)

Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, prayed with a buddy every morning for six weeks, sitting in a canyon near where they lived in Southern California. 100 hours of prayer in six weeks. You can read the story here. Dawson credits the eventual worldwide ministry of The Navigators to that time in prayer. He used to say:

Do you ask The Lord of the Universe for peanuts, toys, and trinkets, or for NATIONS and continents? – Dawson Trotman

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5.17, ESV)

…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… (Ephesians 6.18, ESV)

It’s the challenge of prayer. I’m still working on it.

PS God still cares about the little things. The air conditioner installation was finished today around 3:30.