A Prayer for Someone Else

LORD, God of Jacob, today we do not come mainly for ourselves. We come for the people you have put beside us: the spouse, the child, the friend, the coworker, the pastor, the one whose name is on our mind as we pray. Answer them when they are in distress. Protect them by your name.

Send them help from your sanctuary. Support them from Zion. Where they have offered you their work and their worship, remember it and receive it. Give them the desire of their heart, and where that desire is not yet aligned with yours, gently bend it until it is, and then fulfill it. Make their plans succeed.

We confess that we so easily trust in chariots and horses, in savings and strategies and strength. Teach us and those we love to trust in your name instead, because those who trust in it rise and stand firm while everything else is brought to its knees.

Give victory, LORD, to your anointed King, Jesus. Answer us when we call. Amen.