{"id":2413,"date":"2020-08-08T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-08T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2413"},"modified":"2020-08-07T08:47:20","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T14:47:20","slug":"what-do-we-pray-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2413","title":{"rendered":"What do we pray for?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another gem from my <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2406\">recent study of Colossians 4<\/a> were observations on prayer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>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\u2014 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person&#8230;Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. (Colossians 4.2 &#8211; 6, 12, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Paul asks us to pray, being steadfast, watchful, and with thanksgiving. For what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Open doors for the Word<\/li><li>Clarity in communication<\/li><li>Maturity for believers, \u201cfully assured\u201d in all the will of God&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those guys were praying for things I don\u2019t always pray for. My friend Bill Mowry calls these \u201cmacro prayers\u201d in chapter 4 of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/p\/the-ways-of-the-alongsider\/9781631465727\">The Ways of the Alongsider<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the other hand, I don\u2019t always pray for the little stuff either, but I did on Wednesday. I was waiting to deliver a 5-minute eulogy at <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2410\">Col Craigie\u2019s burial service<\/a>, a eulogy that only existed on my phone. I looked down and noticed that the battery which had been over 70% a few minutes before was at 43%. If that precipitous decline continued, I could lose all power AND my script!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drbobewell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2.png?resize=474%2C416&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2415\" width=\"474\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drbobewell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2.png?resize=1024%2C898&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drbobewell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2.png?resize=300%2C263&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drbobewell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2.png?resize=768%2C673&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drbobewell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2.png?w=1064&amp;ssl=1 1064w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drbobewell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2.png?w=948&amp;ssl=1 948w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><figcaption><em>Delivering a eulogy at Col Cragie&#8217;s graveside service<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I prayed that the battery would hold. When I finished my talk, it was still at 43%! Answers like that to the little things encourage me to pray for the big things as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.\u00a0If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15.5, 7, NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord\u2019s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6.18 &#8211; 20, NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another gem from my recent study of Colossians 4 were observations on prayer: 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 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2413\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What do we pray for?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-CV","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2417,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413\/revisions\/2417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}