How To Intercede For Loved Ones (Part 1)

I know I am suppose to pray for my wife, children, grandchildren, church, and others.  I know God says that He looked for an intercession and found none.  God was surprised when nobody was praying.  I think most of us know this.  What we wonder is, “How do I pray?”  Sometimes if feels like we are walking on egg shells when we approach God because we don’t want to ask for anything outside His will.  I’ve told God He can veto my prayers if I ask anything outside His will.  Still I wondered how to pray.  I would look at a picture of my children and grandchildren and I seemed to be praying the same things over them every time.

If you will take the prayers in the Bible and use those Bible prayers as models and begin to ask for your loved ones what the apostle Paul asked for those that he loved, you can be pretty well certain that you're asking in the will of God. And when you ask that kind of a prayer, then you can pray with great faith and great confidence.  It opens up a whole new way of praying.

I want to mention five things that Paul prayed for the Ephesians. Each one will be a separate blog entry. It is taken from Ephesians 3:8-21.  They key verse is 14. “For this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Now here's what Paul prayed for these for these people.

First of all, he prayed he prayed for spiritual wealth for their needfulness.

He says beginning in verse 8, He "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I may preach among the Gentiles," now here's the phrase, "the unsearchable riches of Christ and make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Therefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations, for you, which is your glory, for this cause I bow my knees."

God, help these people in Ephesus know how rich they are. He is talking about spiritual riches. They think they have need. Help them to understand the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus, to know the eternal purpose of God.  What is that eternal purpose?  That you might understand the riches of God’s grace.

Pray for your children, say, “Oh, God, help them to understand, help them to know what they have in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Do you know why our kids get into worldliness? They don't know what they have in the Lord Jesus Christ and the reason that they want to be worldly is that they have never discovered the riches that they have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter because he esteemed the riches of Christ a greater treasure than all the treasures of Egypt. Our kids are not gonna be sucked out into Egypt when they understand what they have in the Lord Jesus Christ. If I've just had a wonderful meal and then you offer me a plate full of stale crumbs, I'd say, “No thank you, I'm already satisfied.” If your dog is chewing on a bone, and you throw him a steak, even he knows enough to leave the bone and go for the steak.  The devil throws our children a bone but we need to show them the steak the Lord has prepared for them.

Pray, “Help them to see, Oh, God, help them to understand. Open their eyes to see just how rich they are. Help them to see true wealth.”