Hello Village Church family and friends,

"I am praying for you." I say those words all the time. Although well intentioned, they are pretty generic and perhaps sometimes insensitive. Every time someone says, "I'm praying you," to me, I think, "Thank you? But what are you praying for me?" Instead of saying, "I'm praying for you," I have been working to ask whoever I'm talking to, "How can I pray for you?" This helps to move your prayer from generic and perhaps insensitive to specific and informed. Church, I don't pray for you generically. When I'm informed by you of what's going on in your life, I pray for those things. When I'm not informed about what's going on in your life, I pray the Word over you.

I want to show you what I mean here and perhaps help you pray for others. We are to pray for Christians at all times (Ephesians 6:18). When I am uninformed about your life, I pray for salvation (Romans 10:1), that God would open your eyes so that you may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that you may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18). I pray that the Lord, in His mercy and grace, would lead you not into temptation but deliver you from evil (Matthew 6:13). I pray that the Lord would meet your basic needs; He knows you need them (Matthew 6:32). I pray that the spiritual soul is being fed by His Word (Matthew 4:4). I pray that as the Lord holds all things together by the power of His Word (Hebrews 1:3) that according to the riches of his glory he would grant that you be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:16-17). I pray that you would be rooted and grounded in love and that you would have strength to comprehend and know the love of Christ and that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19).

Grace & Peace,
John
(You can reach Pastor John at jwhite@thevillagemi.com)