Praying For Others Bible Study

Often, when I pray I feel like I don't know what to pray for. I believe in the importance of the eternal, but my requests are often focused on the temporal (healing for the sick, provision for those with financial needs, safety for those in dangerous situations...). There is nothing wrong with praying for these things, but my desire is to pray in ways that can affect eternity so I decided to look into the types of prayers that were encouraged in the New Testament as well as the examples of prayers and prayer requests that were included in the epistles. 

Below are two printables. The first printable is a list of all of the verses that I found for you to study on your own. I encourage you to circle the verb that refers to prayer (pray, ask, thank...) and then to underline what is being requested (or for what God is being thanked). Take notes in the right column about the different themes. The second printable is a list of the verses in the first section already broken into themes. Each day, meditate on one of these verses and try to include them into your prayers for others or even yourself that day.

I found it interesting what was prayed for the most. Of course, some prayers were more prevalent because of the situations of the authors (safety while evangelizing, being brought back together with the recipients of the epistles...), but most of the prayers were for others to grow spiritually and all that accompanies spiritual growth, such as spiritual knowledge and understanding, resisting temptation, and doing good works. I look forward to incorporating these thoughts into my prayers for others. 

To look deeper on prayer, try this Bible study on lots of concepts related to prayer.  Or put this Bible study on praying for others into practice with this 30 Days of Prayer printable.