Read:

Colossians 1:9 "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives…"

Think:

Have you ever wondered what the secret sauce is to prayer? Why can some people speak to God for hours, and others never talk to him? Why do some have meaningful conversations while others find it dull and dry? Why do some see powerful results while others feel like their prayers never get beyond the ceiling? How can you love Jesus and read your Bible, yet feel like powerful prayers are foreign and strange?

Looking deeper into this passage of Colossians, we find the apostle Paul addressing believers. He spoke to Epaphras, the pastor of the Colossae church, and told him he prayed for him even though he had never met him. He prayed for him passionately, persistently.

Could that be the secret sauce? Could the secret to a powerful prayer life be genuinely desiring people to know Jesus and find freedom? As we see, the deeper we go into Colossians, the more Paul prayed, the more he wanted to pray. Perhaps that is precisely what we will discover; the more we pray for people, the more we will yearn to pray for people. These people aren’t just names on a list, they are eternal investments. So a powerful prayer life comes from a heart overflowing with passion for the lost, the hurting, and the broken. A passion for people leads to a desire for prayer.

Apply:

Ask God to give you a passion for the people around you. Begin today to pray for someone who is hurting, who needs freedom, who is far away from Jesus.

Pray:

God, please grow a heart like yours inside of me. Create in me a longing for others to know you. May I be evidence to the graciousness of who you are. Amen.