praying for yourself

⁷Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.

¹⁶Rejoice always. ¹⁷Pray without ceasing. ¹⁸Give thanks in everything. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for all of you.

⁶Be anxious about nothing. But in all things, with prayer and supplication, with acts of thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. ⁷And so shall the peace of God, which exceeds all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

⁶But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.

¹⁴By reason of this grace, I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth takes its name. ¹⁶And I ask him to grant to you to be strengthened in virtue by his Spirit, in accord with the wealth of his glory, in the inner man, ¹⁷so that Christ may live in your hearts through a faith rooted in, and founded on, charity. ¹⁸So may you be able to embrace, with all the saints, what is the width and length and height and depth ¹⁹of the charity of Christ, and even be able to know that which surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

³⁹And continuing on a little further, he fell prostrate on his face, praying and saying: “My Father, if it is possible, let this chalice pass away from me. Yet truly, let it not be as I will, but as you will.”

¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be saved. For the unremitting prayer of a just person prevails over many things.

¹⁸Through every kind of prayer and supplication, pray at all times in spirit, and so be vigilant with every kind of earnest supplication, for all the saints,

⁹But Jabez was renowned, more so than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “For I bore him in sorrow.” ¹⁰Truly, Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “If only, when blessing, you will bless me, and will broaden my borders, and your hand will be with me, and you will cause me not to be oppressed by evil.” And God granted to him the things for which he prayed.

²⁶And similarly, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself asks on our behalf with ineffable sighing.

⁹Then, too, from the day when we first heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and requesting that you be filled with the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding, ¹⁰so that you may walk in a manner worthy of God, being pleasing in all things, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹being strengthened in every virtue, in accord with the power of his glory, with all patience and longsuffering, with joy, ¹²giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to have a share in the portion of the saints, in the light.

⁴⁴But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.

⁸Because of this, three times I petitioned the Lord that it might be taken away from me.

⁶Be anxious about nothing. But in all things, with prayer and supplication, with acts of thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.