Praying for all the Saints
“Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 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, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:17–20)
On the back of our evening bulletin this coming Lord’s day, we plan to reboot our practice of including a weekly prayer guide to assist you to pray specifically and intelligently for the family of God at Christ Covenant. Paul makes it clear such prayer is a vital part of our spiritual battle against the forces of wickedness. It and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, are the two chief weapons that God has given to us to fight back against the devil. John Stott describes it like this:
Prevailing Christian prayer is wonderfully comprehensive. It has four universals, indicated by the fourfold use of the word ‘all’. We are to pray at all times (both regularly and constantly), with all prayer and supplication (for it takes many and varied forms), with all perseverance (because we need like good soldiers to keep alert, and neither give up nor fall asleep), making supplication for all the saints (since the unity of God’s new society, which has been the preoccupation of this whole letter, must be reflected in our prayers). Most Christians pray sometimes, with some prayers and some degree of perseverance, for some of God’s people. But to replace ‘some’ by ‘all’ in each of these expressions would be to introduce us to a new dimension of prayer. It was when Christian ‘perceived the mouth of hell … hard by the wayside’ in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and saw flame and smoke and heard hideous noises, that ‘he was forced to put up his sword, and betake himself to another weapon, called All-prayer: so he cried in my hearing, “O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.” ( John R. W. Stott, God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians.)
Part of the reason that I am writing this article is to ask each of you (as I ask myself), are you in the fight? Are you sending rounds down range? Have you grown sleepy? Have you given up, perhaps through discouragement? How are these four universals presently pressing down, in, and through your own prayer life?
Do you need to hear Paul’s exhortation to “keep alert with all perseverance”? Is prayer a growing part of your weekly, daily, and even hourly schedule through the day? Do you want it to be? Are you moving towards or away from Paul’s perfect standard of “praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. . . for all the saints”? If you were to apply these verses to your life tomorrow, how would your life change? What one thing would you do more, less, or differently as a result?
Do you have a structure in your prayer life? It really helps you get started, to know where to start, how to progress, and when you’re through. To be sure, rigid structures can at times stifle the free spirit of prayer, but so can the opposite vice, that of praying without any structure whatsoever. To be sure, unorganized prayer can feel liberating, but it can also feel like a body trying to walk without any bones to support the flesh, or like a sermon with neither a beginning, middle, or end!
If you struggle with structuring your prayer life, might I suggest a few pointers that I have found helpful over the years?
First, I usually begin a prayer time by rehearsing my Bible memory verses (usually from the Psalms, or some other passage that helps me think great thoughts of God, His sovereignty over every detail of life, His willingness to hear my cry, forgive my sins, and grant my request, etc.). I find that rehearsing memorized Scripture primes the pump so to speak and helps me get going in a posture of worship and clear-headed faith. Without these prerequisites for effective prayer, I find that I just don’t get any traction. A tool that I find tremendously helpful in this regard can be found at biblememory.com, and its accompanying app has greatly increased my facility to memorize Scripture. The Pro-version is definitely worth the few dollars that it costs. I have said it before and I will say it again, if I could recognize one habit that would make the greatest difference to every Christian’s daily walk with God, it would be quite simply: memorize Scripture!
Second, I pray for my own particular needs. I try to organize my requests around several headings:
Knowledge: Is there a particular subject about which I want to attain mastery, for example, the knowledge of God, or understanding my own heart and its devious ways, or some subject of theology, history, Scripture, or the practicalities of life in a fallen world?
Character: Is there a particular vice that God is pointing out in my life that I must put to death? Is God challenging me to put on a particular spiritual virtue?
Habits: Are there good habits that I want to develop or bad habits that I need to break?
Skills: Are there practical areas in my life as an individual with respect to my various roles in the home, the church, and my calling in the world in which I need to hone and improve my ability?
Relationships: How are my relationships? Again, think of the home, the church, and the world. Are there areas of tension, conflict, coldness, or patterns of bitterness? How do I engage in conflict? Am I appropriately direct, or am I overbearing, impatient, passive aggressive, etc.? Do you see that with a little thought, there are a thousand specifics that we could list in our prayers?
If these five areas seem too much, you might pick one per day from Monday to Friday.
Try to attach a Scripture verse to each request so that you can pray well using the language of heaven. I know that some of you read the corresponding chapter of Proverbs for the day of the month. A pattern which I find helpful is to take one or two of the most relevant verses from each of these chapters and use them to guide my prayer on that particular day of the month.
Third, I pray similarly for each member of my family. I find the following question brings wonderful clarity as I do: If God would give my wife, daughter, son, etc. one thing that would make the biggest difference to their life, what would that one thing be? Again attach Scriptural truth to each request. Nothing helps me pray better in faith.
Fourth, I pray for the church (local and international). I like to group my prayers under what Harry Reeder calls the five ships of the Christian Armada:
Worship: Pray that God will make His presence felt in our service, that the music will come with its characteristic majesty, and that we will sing with joy to the Lord. Pray that God will deliver our minds from distraction, that the prayers will come with holy unction, and that I will correctly open up the Word of God with clarity, conviction, courage, and compassion. Pray that I will grow as a preacher, pastor, and as a man of prayer. Pray that God will preserve your pastor, elders, and deacons from gross public and private sin and from theological error.
Leadership: Pray for your elders, deacons, and ministry leaders that God will give them clear vision for the future, faithfulness in the moment, love for His people, and holiness in their lives. As you read the Scriptures, keep a note of verses that will help you pray intelligently for your elders (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are excellent places to start). Pray that God would raise qualified future leaders for our ministry.
Discipleship: The church exists to make more and better disciples of Jesus Christ. Pray for our attendance at Sunday morning and evening worship (our premier discipleship opportunities), our Sunday school, weekly Bible studies, and book reading groups. Pray for your elders and for me as we meet with Christians to provide spiritual counsel.
Fellowship: Pray for the specific needs of our congregation. This is where you could use the prayer guide for additional points to remember.
Stewardship: Pray that God will help us steward the time, talents, and treasure that He has entrusted to our care.
Pray for the various mission works that the church supports.
You might consider picking one work for each day of the week.
Pray for our seminaries, Christian colleges, and schools.
Pray for a new generation of preachers to fill our pulpits.
Fifth, pray for our city, state, and federal government (1Timothy 2:1ff). Pray for national revival in our nation. She desperately needs it.
You will see that such a list will quickly become overwhelming. That is okay. Resist the urge to pray for everything everyday. You are a human being with only so much time. Budget how much time you plan to spend in prayer each day. I fall down here terribly, and I need to do a better job of dividing my prayer list into daily prayers, weekly prayers, and monthly prayers. The weekly prayers are those that I list under the specific day in that week. For my monthly prayers, it is here my organizational system falls down most of all, so I try to arrange the requests in a list numbered 1-31 for each day of the month. It is amazing how much ground one can cover with such a scheme. Suitable subjects for monthly prayer might include: families in our church, unbelievers with whom you come into contact, old school friends, previous churches, missionaries, preachers, etc. These are the kinds of things that you haven’t time to pray for every day or even every week, but they could easily find themselves on a short list of say five subjects that you commit to pray for on one specific day each month. In doing so, you could cover 155 subjects/people every month, a fantastic number that you could never hope to maintain with any regularity on a daily list of supplications.
There are many ways to keep track of such lists. Some men prefer index cards or a notebook. On my part, I like to use a computer to-do list app. This takes care of the scheduling part of the equation on those days, really every day, when my inner resolve is a little “worse for wear.”
Whatever every plan you select, USE IT! As the old adage goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. One thing is certain: I, your brothers and sisters at Christ Covenant, and the city and world all around us need your prayers. What’s more, when you pray on earth, God hears in heaven. In fact, He is more willing to listen than you and I are to speak. How the angels must wonder that with such a Father in heaven, His children on earth do not pray more than we do? And what a difference such prayer would make! As John Patton once quipped when asked to explain the difference between courage and fear, “Why,” he said, “courage is fear that has said its prayers!” As we lean into our Savior amid these tremendously fraught times, may God give us great courage as we bow our knees on earth and wrestle with the Majesty of heaven. God bless you, my brothers and sisters.
Thank you for your prayers.