Introducing “I’m Praying for You”
What keeps us from praying for others? Maybe we feel intimidated to pray for someone facing adversity for lack of knowing what to pray. Perhaps we feel we only have so many ways to plead with God for the health and well–being of those we love, and after awhile, it feels like we are saying the same things over and over again. Sometimes the uncertainty about what to pray for someone may keep us from praying for them at all.
Nevertheless, at different points in our lives, we will all be called to walk alongside someone who is suffering. That’s why it is essential that we know how to pray for them.
Renowned Bible teacher and best–selling author, Nancy Guthrie, has written a book to help us expand our vocabulary in terms of prayer. I’m Praying for You: 40 Days of Praying the Bible for Someone Who Is Suffering (10Publishing, 2021) opens up the Bible to show us how best to pray—even exactly what to pray—for others. Each chapter begins with a verse that relates to a specific prayer, written especially for someone undergoing hardships, and ends with the prayer itself, complete with blanks throughout to fill in the person’s name.
What makes this book unique is that not only do we have a prayer laid out word for word to recite for someone else, but we also have a way of sharing it with them. Each prayer comes with a QR code that, once scanned, will allow us to copy and paste a brief summary of it to send to the one for whom we are praying. It starts, “I’m praying [this verse] for you…” then delves into what we are specifically praying for them.
Prayer, like other things in the Christian life, is not a solitary practice. It is most fruitful when done alongside others. In a COVID world, physically meeting together to pray as a group may not be possible, but when employing the use of several copies of the book, I’m Praying for You can unite your friends or family in prayer daily for a loved one—whether everyone is near or far from each other.
We all know someone who is suffering. Maybe a friend is battling terminal illness, or grieving the loss of a family member. Maybe a family is shaken and scared by job loss, or depression is overwhelming one’s life. In this book, you can find a way to pray for anyone, regardless of the circumstances of their suffering. And that is why we recommend it to you so strongly.
