Learn of Christ · Updated
At a glance
Paul’s prayers teach us to ask for more than a preferred change in someone’s circumstances. These three sessions follow his petitions for knowledge of God, discerning love, fruitful conduct, strength, and gratitude. Each session begins with the biblical prayer and ends with an original practice that connects intercession with attentive care for a real person.
Begin with a person and a passage
Choose one person or community you want to pray for during these sessions. If the person has shared a concern, use their own account rather than inventing an explanation of their situation. If they have not shared details, you can still pray for their good without pretending to know what is hidden.
Read each passage before using the suggested prayer. Circle what Paul thanks God for, underline what he asks, and mark the purpose or outcome named in the sentence. This method keeps the study close to the apostolic prayers and helps you notice petitions you might overlook when beginning only with your own agenda.
A session can be completed in one sitting or spread over several days. The passages are short enough to reread slowly. Give more time to the words that challenge how you have been praying, rather than treating completion of the plan as the main achievement.
Keep private details private. In a group, participants can share a petition such as wisdom, endurance, or love without naming another person’s confidential circumstances. Intercession is a way of caring for people before God, not a reason to circulate a fuller account of their lives than they have chosen to share.
Session one: begin with thanksgiving
Read alongside this section
Read Ephesians 1:15–23. Paul says he has heard of the readers’ faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the saints. He does not begin by treating the community as a collection of problems. He gives thanks for what is already present and continues to mention them in his prayers.
Thanksgiving is specific here. Faith and love are named, and the love reaches toward the saints. The passage gives us a reason to look carefully for actual good rather than offering flattery or inventing a compliment. What evidence of trust, generosity, patience, or care have you truly seen in the person for whom you pray?
The prayer also shows that gratitude and further petition can coexist. Recognizing good does not imply that the person has no need of growth. Paul thanks God and asks that the community receive wisdom, revelation, and knowledge of Him. His gratitude opens a deeper request.
Try beginning your own intercession with a truthful sentence of thanks. If a relationship is difficult and you cannot readily name a personal virtue, give thanks for the person’s life and ask to see them more accurately. There is no need to disguise real wrongdoing with a polished compliment.
Study questions
What does Paul name before asking for further growth?
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He names faith in the Lord Jesus and love toward all the saints, and he gives thanks. His petition builds on recognition of good already present.
Does thanksgiving rule out asking for change?
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No. Paul’s thanks leads directly into requests for deeper knowledge and understanding. Gratitude and a desire for growth are joined in the prayer.
Ask for understanding shaped by Christ’s resurrection
Verses 17–19 ask for knowledge of God and enlightened understanding. Paul names the hope of His calling, the riches of His inheritance in the saints, and the greatness of His power toward believers. The prayer has a wider horizon than the immediate difficulty that may have prompted your concern for someone.
The description of power continues into verses 20–23. Paul points to the raising of Christ from the dead and His exaltation, then to His relation to the church as head and body. Do not stop reading at the word “power” and fill it with whatever outcome you most want. The prayer itself gives that word its shape.
This means you can pray that another person understand hope and belonging even while their practical circumstances remain demanding. Such a request does not dismiss those circumstances. It asks for a deeper knowledge of God within them, grounded in the work Paul describes in Christ.
An original prayer might be: “Father of glory, help this person know You more deeply. Enlighten their understanding of Your calling, Your people, and the power You displayed in raising Christ. Give them hope that reaches beyond what they can see today, and help me support them with truthful and patient care.”
Study questions
What event anchors the prayer’s language about power?
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Verses 20–23 point to Christ’s resurrection and exaltation and His relation to the church. The passage does not leave power as an undefined promise of personal control.
How can this prayer be used without neglecting someone’s practical need?
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Pray for the understanding Paul names and also attend to the actual need the person has shared. A deeper petition need not replace practical help or an honest request for relief.
Session two: notice love within a real relationship
Read alongside this section
Read Philippians 1:3–11. Paul remembers the community with thanksgiving and joy because of their fellowship in the gospel. His prayer comes from a relationship with a history, not from an abstract wish for people he treats as interchangeable.
The passage also names his bonds and the defense and confirmation of the gospel. Affection and prayer are present within difficult circumstances. Paul does not postpone gratitude until imprisonment and uncertainty are removed. He can recognize a shared good while naming the setting honestly.
Verse 6 expresses confidence that the One who began a good work will carry it forward until the day of Jesus Christ. Keep that confidence within the passage’s shared gospel life. It should not become an automatic endorsement of every project a person starts or a guarantee that a chosen plan will be completed on schedule.
The prayer’s relational warmth can change our own posture. We are praying for a person whose good matters, not managing an outcome from a distance. Ask whether your words express affection and respect, or whether they repeatedly ask God to make another person more convenient for you.
Study questions
What makes this prayer relationally specific?
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Paul remembers the community’s fellowship in the gospel, speaks of affection, and includes their shared participation during his bonds and defense of the gospel. The prayer arises from an actual relationship.
Pray for love that grows in discernment
Verse 9 asks that love abound more and more in knowledge and judgment. Love is not treated as the opposite of careful understanding. The prayer seeks a love capable of recognizing what is excellent and responding faithfully.
Verses 10–11 carry the petition forward toward sincerity, a life oriented to the day of Christ, and the fruits of righteousness through Jesus Christ to God’s praise. The prayer has an ethical shape. It concerns what a person becomes and does, as well as how warmly they feel.
For intercession, this offers language for someone facing a decision. You can ask that their love become wiser, that they recognize what is excellent, and that their conduct bear good fruit. These petitions leave room for their responsibility to choose; they do not require announcing that you already know the single decision God must make them take.
An original prayer might be: “Lord, let this person’s love grow with understanding. Help them recognize what deserves their attention and choose with integrity. Bring good fruit through Jesus Christ in their conduct. Give me the patience to listen and the humility to offer counsel without trying to control them.”
Study questions
Why does Paul join love with knowledge and judgment?
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His petition seeks love that can discern and approve what is excellent. The following verses connect that growth with sincerity and righteous fruit, so the prayer includes understanding and conduct.
What changes when we pray for discernment instead of only our preferred outcome?
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We ask for the person’s capacity to respond faithfully, while recognizing that their responsibility and knowledge may differ from our own. We can still make a specific request without claiming certainty we do not possess.
Session three: connect knowledge with a worthy walk
Read alongside this section
Read Colossians 1:9–14. Paul and his companions continue praying that the readers be filled with knowledge of God’s will in wisdom and spiritual understanding. Verse 10 immediately names the purpose: a walk worthy of the Lord, fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
The connection is important. Knowledge is not presented as a private possession that leaves conduct untouched. It is sought for a life that pleases the Lord and bears fruit. At the same time, the prayer does not reduce understanding to mere efficiency. Knowing God remains part of the growth it asks for.
When praying for someone’s knowledge of God’s will, resist making the entire request about receiving a hidden prediction of the future. The passage names wisdom, conduct, good work, growth, strength, and gratitude. Those are concrete directions for prayer even when the details of a future decision remain unclear.
Ask what faithful conduct might look like in the person’s actual responsibilities. A parent, colleague, leader, student, or caregiver may need wisdom expressed through patience, truthfulness, courage, or sustained work. Pray in a way that honors those responsibilities without assuming you know every burden they carry.
Study questions
What purpose follows the request for knowledge of God’s will?
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Verse 10 connects it with walking worthily, pleasing the Lord, bearing fruit in good work, and increasing in knowledge of God. The prayer joins understanding with a lived response.
Ask for strength expressed in endurance and gratitude
Verse 11 asks for strengthening according to God’s glorious power, leading into patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Strength in this prayer is not simply the removal of every demanding circumstance. It includes the capacity to continue faithfully within what must still be faced.
Verses 12–14 move into thanksgiving to the Father, participation in the inheritance of the saints in light, deliverance from darkness, the kingdom of His Son, redemption, and forgiveness. The prayer remembers received grace while asking for continued strength. Gratitude is supported by named gifts, not by pressure to pretend that difficulty is pleasant.
Praying for endurance must never become a convenient reason to withhold help. If a task can be shared or a harmful practice corrected, an appeal to patience does not excuse leaving everything unchanged. Intercession can include asking for strength while also moving the person praying toward practical responsibility.
An original prayer might be: “Father, give this person wisdom for a worthy walk and strength for the work before them. Sustain patience and joy without requiring them to hide their weariness. Deepen their gratitude for Your gifts in Christ. Show me whether there is a burden I can share or a wrong I should help address.”
Study questions
What kind of strength does verse 11 expressly name?
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It connects divine strengthening with patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. The prayer includes endurance, rather than only immediate escape from difficulty.
Why should a prayer for endurance be joined with attention to practical care?
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The petition concerns another person’s good. It should not become an excuse for the person praying to ignore a responsibility or withhold help that can appropriately be offered.
Christ stands at the center of these prayers
Each passage names Jesus Christ as part of the prayer's substance. Ephesians points to His resurrection, exaltation, and relation to the church. Philippians asks for righteous fruit through Him and looks toward His day. Colossians gives thanks for the kingdom of the Father's Son, redemption, and forgiveness. These are direct connections within the readings. They give intercession a larger horizon than the outcome we can presently imagine for someone. We ask for understanding, love, conduct, and strength within the life these passages describe in Christ, and we let that prayer shape the care we offer.
Continue with specific care
Bring your notes from the three sessions together. Choose one petition from each passage: for example, enlightened understanding from Ephesians, discerning love from Philippians, and strength for fruitful conduct from Colossians. Write them in ordinary language using the person’s name privately if appropriate.
Revisit these petitions over the next week without treating repetition as a formula for control. You can change the wording as you learn more. If the person tells you that you misunderstood their need, let that information correct both your prayer and your offer of help.
Keep a record that distinguishes what you asked from what you observed. You may notice a conversation, a practical opportunity, or a change in your own patience. You may also have no visible news. Do not invent a report of answered prayer merely to give the plan a satisfying conclusion.
Finally, choose one act of care that fits the relationship: a respectful question, a practical offer, a kept commitment, or space the person has requested. Prayer for another person’s growth should also make us more willing to become a trustworthy presence in their life.
Study questions
What is a useful way to assess the practice?
Compare your observations with the study notes
Ask whether your petitions are more closely shaped by the passages and whether your care is more truthful, attentive, and appropriate. Visible control over another person’s outcome is not the measure these prayers supply.
Sources and editorial note
- Ephesians 1:15–23, King James Version
Thanksgiving, knowledge, hope, inheritance, and power described through Christ’s resurrection and exaltation.
- Philippians 1:3–11, King James Version
Partnership, affection, discerning love, and righteous fruit through Jesus Christ.
- Colossians 1:9–14, King James Version
Knowledge of God’s will, fruitful conduct, endurance, thanksgiving, redemption, and forgiveness.
Prepared with AI assistance for Learn of Christ and checked against the passages and sources listed here. This revision has not received independent human scholarly review. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version unless another translation is named. Prayers and exercises are original examples.