Prayer is important, even when God has already declared His will in a situation, especially when we are telling people about Jesus.

…keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, Ephesians 6:18b-19

Towards the end of Ephesians, Paul encouraged the church to pray for all believers. For himself, Paul asked that they would pray that he would be able to speak effectively.

This wasn’t a new idea, of course, because it was an example of praying according to God’s will as described by Jesus when He sent out the twelve. At that time, He taught that the words they spoke would be given to them by the Holy Spirit, that He would actually be speaking through them (Matthew 10:19-20).

Thus, Paul was really just reminding the church of that truth and asking them to pray that this would happen during his ministry. While God speaks through believers in many ways, this was specifically for proclaiming the good news.

Clearly, there is still a need for us to be speaking with the Spirit’s voice, so we still need to be praying this for each other.

Heavenly Father, I ask that all who are sharing the good news of Jesus’ salvation would be given words by Your Spirit, and that You would speak through me as I share Jesus with words that will speak into other’s hearts.