A Prayer for Friends Weighed Down with Various Burdens
Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. (1 Sam. 12:23)
Dear Jesus, your intercession for us is one of our most prized gifts. And it’s be- cause of your great care and love for us that we bring our friends before you today— friends who are weighed down with various burdens and cares. There are enough stories of stress and struggles all around us to keep us on our knees for a long time. Where else can we go but to you? Hear our prayers for those we love.
Jesus, we pray for friends dealing with health issues. All along the continuum of common colds to uncommon cancers, we ask you to bring your mercy and healing, Jesus. Whether by the special grace of divine intervention or the common grace of good medicine and health care, it makes no difference. Mete out sufficient grace in each situation. Bring great glory to yourself. Make your presence clearly felt even if your ways cannot be easily discerned.
We pray for friends struggling financially and in their careers. You don’t promise us abundance or surplus, Jesus, but you do promise to meet all our needs. We especially think of friends who are closer to mental and emotional bankruptcy than financial collapse. By the power of your resurrection and for your name’s sake, open doors that seem locked and bolted. From your storehouse of everlasting goodness, bring forth the right provision at the right time. It’s most likely you will use us as a part of the answer to our prayers. May we be generous and gracious in serving our friends.
We pray for friends who are burdened relationally. Marriage will always be a center of unrelenting spiritual warfare, for this relationship is meant to tell the story of your great love for your bride. Pour out your Spirit, Jesus. Humble the proud and bring hope to the despairing. Defuse the anger and clarify the issues. Supply the right counsel, and grant ample supplies of forbearance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
We ask the same for whole families, long-standing friendships, and local church- es under the siege of broken relationships and battered trust. Do far beyond what we can ask or imagine, for the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. Help us, Jesus, for your glory and fame. We pray in your peerless and price- less name.
Amen.