I was asking Paul one day how to pray for other people: “What do I ask God for on behalf of other people?”

He didn’t answer. Not exactly.

But he did write a letter to a group of people that he was praying for. And he told them what he was asking; “I’m asking God to give you an awareness of his will.”

I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean, “I’m asking God to tell you what job to take.”

Or where to move or what major to take. Or what treatment to choose.

It’s asking God to help the people we love to increasingly understand the height and depth and breadth of God’s love for them. And, knowing that love, be able to find peace and identity and power and courage and comfort.

It’s different than asking God for healing. Because that’s not a guarantee, at least not the way we usually want it. I know that all too well from the conversations I have every day. And so, either I can keep asking for the thing that may not happen, or I can ask for the understanding that I know can happen.

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”

What if, instead of pointing out how people don’t agree with us, how people’s pictures of God fall short of ours, how much better our group is than theirs, we asked God to fill them up with the knowledge of what he wants.

And what if they were asking God the same thing for us?

Because what if you and I don’t know everything God knows and thinks?

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From Colossians 1.