Several years ago, I was given a glimpse into how one Houston family prays about their philanthropy. Parents and children gathered around an outdoor table, bowed their heads in prayer, and asked God to grow their hearts in generosity and guidance in knowing which organizations to fund.
Then each family member shared about the different organizations they had researched for potential grants. Generosity and prayer were beautifully intertwined. That moment made a lasting impact on the way that I, too, want to approach generosity with prayer.
But I’ve come to realize that praying over our giving is just the beginning of how our prayers can be generous—and even ignite greater generosity. Over three years, I researched and co-wrote the book Lead with Prayer. During this time, we had the privilege of interviewing incredible leaders like Joni Eareckson Tada, Francis Chan, John Ortberg, Mark Batterson and global leaders serving in more than 100 countries. They shared openly about their regular rhythms of prayer, and often, they offered to pray for us.
A shared trait among these world-changing leaders was the others-centeredness of their prayers. While they prayed for their families and organizations, their prayers reached far beyond those closest to them. They were truly generous with their prayers—a form of generosity we can all emulate.
Here are four prayer practices to inspire your prayer rhythms that we learned from these praying leaders:
1. Pray right away.
From the leaders we interviewed, we learned that even in large, publicly traded companies, most people welcome an offer of prayer, especially in a time of need. One interviewee shared, “People might not be initially open to hearing the gospel, but … very few people are not open to taking the time and space to be prayed over.” Working within the Christian nonprofit sector, this practice feels still more accessible to me, yet I hadn’t frequently offered it. Rather than just telling colleagues and friends I’ll pray for them after they’ve shared a need or a challenge, I can be generous with my prayers when I pause what I’m doing to bring their need before God then and there.
2. Pray for what is on God’s heart.
Ryan Skoog shared a powerful example of how being generous with his prayers led to financial generosity as well. Ryan committed to spending time in prayer each week without asking God for a single thing. One afternoon, as he knelt, he asked, Jesus, what is on your heart? What can I pray for? He heard the name of a country and began praying for Myanmar, despite knowing little about its specific needs. He recalls, “I felt a deep passion well up, and I began crying as I prayed for this country.” Since then, Ryan has had the privilege of helping provide over 55 million meals to refugees in Myanmar. We believe that God will lead us to places of service when we take a generous posture in our prayers.
3. Pray for other organizations.
God has laid a burden on my heart for those impacted by physical and spiritual poverty. It’s why I serve and pray for our work. However, many other organizations also engage in meeting these needs. We show generosity in our prayers by praying not only for our own work and organization, but also for the incredible work done by our peer organizations. We regularly pray for our friends at World Relief, OneChild, Compassion International, Seed Effect, Water Mission, Plant with Purpose, and many others. Our prayers are one simple way to remember that God’s work extends beyond a single organization or sector. We serve Christ alongside a much broader community than any single organization can encompass.
4. Pray with thanksgiving for your colleagues.
In the epistles, the apostle Paul mentions praying or includes prayer in his letters 36 times. Eighty percent of his recorded prayers are for others, often those he met and mentored through his church-planting. Paul’s prayers focus on thanking God for others. He rarely prays for a change in their circumstances but frequently focuses his prayers on what God might be doing through their challenges.
How often do our prayers reflect personalized care, beginning and ending with gratitude? To help me pray for those I serve alongside, I’ve printed an organizational chart with the name of every employee. And sometimes my prayers are simply thankfulness for these colleagues.
Just as prayers inform our generosity, we pray that generosity will characterize our prayers. God moves through both our prayers and generosity, inviting us to participate in His work in our world. Lord, teach us to pray!
