Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 86 · March 27
What Paul Asked For
“Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:”
Think of the last prayer you prayed for somebody else. Did you ask for anything besides a change in their situation?
Paul is writing to a church that is being persecuted. He knows it, and he says so, praising "your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure." Then he tells them what he and his companions pray for them: "Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power." There is not a word in it about the persecution stopping. He asks that they would be made equal to the life God has called them into, and that the good they mean to do would actually get finished. This is how Paul usually prays. For the believers at Colossae he asks that they be "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness." For the believers at Ephesus he prays for "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened."
So pray this prayer now for one person, and use their name.
Father, count them worthy of what You have called them into. Finish the good they mean to do, the good they keep running out of strength for. Put Your power under the small acts of faith that nobody sees or thanks them for. We are not asking You yet to take away the thing pressing on them, though You can. Make them equal to it while it stands. Let the name of our Lord Jesus be honoured in them, and let them be honoured in Him, by Your grace. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 86 is Eyes on You (Psalm 33:18).