Prayers for the Saints
Week Fifty-Two
December 21, 2025
On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
— 2 Corinthians 1:10b-11 (ESV)
In December of 2021 I contracted Covid-19. It hit me hard, and my very life was in danger. In the early morning hours of Christmas day, an ambulance took me to the ER, and I was admitted to the hospital that afternoon. But God had not left me unprepared for what I would be facing. Days before Christmas, the Lord had me in 2 Corinthians 1 (specifically verses 9-11). I found encouragement in that scripture and a promise was birthed in my heart: in my helpless state, the prayers of many would carry me and the Lord would deliver me.
God uses the prayers of his people to bring his promises to pass.
You may not know just how important (and treasured) your prayers can be to someone facing desperate situations or difficult circumstances. The prayers of the saints carry the people of God through many a “danger, toil, and snare.” Your prayers have the power to lift a brother or sister up in their time of need. Does anyone who might be in need come to your mind right now? Will you pray for them? Will you be like Aaron and Hur who lifted the hands of Moses in the heat of battle to ensure the victory of Joshua and his army?¹ Would you be the one to lift your battle-weary brother up with your prayers?
All the promises of God are “yes and amen” in Christ.² Are you willing to pray the promises of God over those in need? I know many were praying for me as I lay distraught and helpless on my hospital bed. And knowing that many were praying led me to one conclusion: God must really love me to have his people praying for me.
A new year is upon us and with a new year comes new opportunities. This year you will have the opportunity to pray for others. Will you make the most of this opportunity? I’m fairly certain that others have made the time to pray for you. I may have been one of those others! Freely you have received, now freely give. Will you take on, as a labor of love, a life of prayer for others, under the hope of heaven’s answer?
Jesus is waiting, listening, and ready to hear your selfless prayers.
Monday
December 22, 2025
Heal the ailing, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons! Freely you received; freely give.
— Matthew 10:8 (BLB)
Heal, raise, cleanse, cast out. In the immediate context, this scripture is referring to the effect of Jesus’ power to impact a person’s well-being. Our prayers provide a prodigious covering that has the ability to quell the fear and pain that others face when impacted by sickness, death, guilt, loneliness, and oppression. They have the power to impact all areas of a person’s life. Your quiet whispers and loud cries prayed in secret to your Father are heard by him and answered in his wisdom and timing. Prayer faces head-on that which we are too weak to face head-on. May we be moved into times of prayer under the knowledge that the one closest to the Father prays for us; Jesus prays for us.³ Pray freely, my friend.
What is the biggest obstacle you find to praying heartily and thoughtfully for others? How could that obstacle be overcome?
Have you seen answered prayer lately? Are there prayers you are waiting to see an answer for?
Tuesday
December 23, 2025
Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
— Colossians 4:12 (NIV)
Community, commonality, connection. As saints, we belong to the body of Christ and to one another. And as saints, we serve one another through prayer. More than the quick “bless them” prayers, may we put forth thoughtful, intentional, heartfelt, and purpose-filled prayers that rise out of our wrestling, struggling, and laboring for each other. Prayer is a heavenly work. It is spiritual in nature and is itself a spiritual battle. Try moving a mountain. That’s what happens when we pray for one another as Epaphras prayed.
Do you find that praying for others comes naturally or easily for you? Or is it more of a labor? Why do you think that is?
What would help you to pray more passionately for others? Where does such passion come from?
Wednesday
December 24, 2025
I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
— 2 Timothy 1:3 (ESV)
There’s that word again, “serve”. Prayer is a service, a fragrant sacrifice offered up for the saints. The remembrance Paul is referring to is not like when we remember we have to fill the car with gas or when someone says something that sparks our memory. This remembrance is clothed with intentionality; it is prayer wrapped in purpose. And it happens often. Powerful prayer tends to interrupt our rhythms of living; it can be intrusive to our plans and schedules. But knowing this should illuminate its importance. Paul uses a merism here, “night and day” to express the continuous and all-encompassing nature of his prayers for Timothy. Service. Remembrance. Constancy. May our lives be lives of prayer just as Paul’s was.
Who could use your prayers today? Would you be willing to remember them throughout this day?
What do you think of the expression, “the exercise of prayer”? Does it make sense to you that prayer could be considered an exercise? How so?
Thursday
December 25, 2025
During his earthly life Christ offered both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion.
— Hebrews 5:7 (NET)
We pray in hope, even in the valley of death’s shadow. Nothing steps up our prayers like the imminence of life’s final act. We pray in hope because Jesus, our forerunner, faced death’s bruise and crushed its keeper’s head. With reverence and submission, from a deeply devoted heart, Jesus pleaded with and petitioned the Able One and became rescue for us. May all our prayers rest in the knowledge of who he is as we pray with the passion and devotion with which he prayed.
How would your prayers take on new meaning and power knowing we follow the one who defeated death? How might your prayers inspire others to a deeper prayer life?
What attitude should your heart carry to the Father when praying for your greatest desires? Why do you think it is difficult at times to leave all things to his will?
Friday
December 26, 2025
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
— Romans 8:26 (NIV)
We see Epaphras wrestling in prayer for the will of God to be done in the lives of his friends. We see Jesus crying out loudly for God’s will as he faced death. And here, we learn that the Spirit, helping us in our wordless weakness and groaning, intercedes on our behalf according to God’s will. May a desire for our Father’s will and purpose and glory grow and birth in us the fruit of passionate prayer. As we face this upcoming year, may we pray in the Holy Spirit.
In this scripture, what is “in the same way” referring to? Do you find the need in your heart to grow in desire for our future glory?
What have you learned about prayer this week? What has hit you most strikingly?