5 Things to Pray for the People You Love

You Love Them. You Want God to Work in Their Lives. But When You Pray, the Words Run Dry.

There are people in your life you love deeply — a spouse, a child, a parent, a close friend, a colleague coming to faith. You long for God to be at work in them: growing their faith, protecting them from harm, drawing them closer to Christ, shaping them into who he made them to be. You want to pray for them. And yet, when you actually try, the same few requests come out again and again. Or your prayers feel too shallow for the depth of your love. Or you simply run out of things to say.

Most of us find ourselves in this place more often than we would like to admit. Not because we do not care, but because we do not quite know what to ask for — what God's priorities for the people we love actually are, and how to pray them with genuine faith and biblical confidence.

5 Things to Pray for the People You Love is designed to solve that problem. Rachel Jones has created a warm, practical, and Scripture-grounded prayer guide that equips Christians to pray powerfully and specifically for the people who matter most in their lives. Each spread takes a passage of God's Word and draws from it five specific, biblically rooted prayers for a person in your life — ensuring that what you ask for is aligned with what God himself has said, promised, and prioritised for his people.

Because when we pray in line with God's priorities as found in his Word, our prayers are powerful and effective (James 5:16). And praying for the people you love with that kind of biblical confidence is, as Rachel Jones puts it, a truly thrilling prospect.

What This Book Covers

Rachel Jones works through the full range of people and relationships in a Christian's life, equipping readers to pray for each one with biblical specificity and genuine love:

• Praying for a spouse — Scripture-rooted prayers for the person you have committed to love and cherish for life
• Praying for children — How to intercede for your children's faith, character, and walk with God at every stage of life
• Praying for parents — Prayers for the people who raised you — whether they are believers or not, near or far
• Praying for friends — How to pray meaningfully for the close friendships that shape and sustain your Christian life
• Praying for those who don't yet know Jesus — Specific, biblically grounded prayers for the people in your life who are still outside the faith
• Praying for those going through difficulty — How to intercede for loved ones in suffering, grief, doubt, or crisis
• Scripture as the foundation — Every spread is anchored in a specific biblical passage, ensuring that prayers are aligned with God's own heart for the people we love

What Readers Will Learn

• How to move beyond shallow, repetitive prayers for loved ones toward specific, Scripture-rooted intercession that is aligned with God's priorities
• What God's Word says about the people we love — his purposes for them, his promises to them, and his will for their growth — and how to pray those truths on their behalf
• How to pray specifically for a spouse, a child, a parent, a friend, and those who do not yet know Jesus
• How to intercede for loved ones going through suffering, doubt, grief, or crisis — with biblical precision and genuine compassion
• Why prayers grounded in Scripture are more powerful and effective than prayers based merely on our own wishes and concerns for those we love
• How to use this book in personal quiet times, small groups, and one-to-one discipleship relationships
• Why praying for the people you love is one of the most significant and love-filled things you can do for them

How to Use This Book

5 Things to Pray for the People You Love is flexible, personal, and immediately usable:

• Personal quiet times — Work through it as part of your daily or weekly prayer time, focusing on one person or relationship per session
• Praying for a specific person — Pick it up whenever someone you love is in particular need of prayer — and find the spread that fits their situation
• Small group prayer — A natural resource for groups wanting to pray for one another with greater depth, specificity, and biblical grounding
• One-to-one discipleship — A warm companion for a discipleship relationship, providing a shared framework for praying for each other and for those you both love
• Family prayer — Use it to guide intentional, Scripture-based prayer for specific family members in your regular family devotional time
• Pastoral gift — A book any church leader can give to a member who wants to grow in how they pray for the people closest to them

Who Should Read This Book

This book is for you if you are:

• A Christian who loves praying for others but finds their intercession for loved ones feeling shallow, repetitive, or stuck in a rut
• A parent who wants to pray with greater biblical depth and specificity for the children God has entrusted to you
• A spouse who wants to intercede more faithfully and powerfully for the person they have committed to love for life
• A Christian with unsaved family or friends who wants to pray for their salvation with genuine faith and biblical grounding
• A small group leader wanting to help your group members pray for one another and for their loved ones with greater depth and confidence
• Anyone who has ever sat down to pray for someone they deeply love — and found themselves running out of words before they felt they had truly prayed

About the Author

Rachel Jones is an author and editor at The Good Book Company and a member of Grace Church, Cambridge. She is the author of several books in the 5 Things to Pray range, known for her warm, accessible, and practically grounded approach to helping Christians pray with greater biblical depth and confidence. Rachel writes with a genuine passion for prayer and a gift for making Scripture feel immediately applicable to the real relationships and situations Christians encounter in everyday life. Her books have helped thousands of Christians and churches develop a richer, more biblically rooted prayer life.

Also available in the 5 Things to Pray range:

• 5 Things to Pray for Your World by Rachel Jones
• 5 Things to Pray for Your Church by Rachel Jones
• 5 Things to Pray for Your City by Helen Thorne & Pete Nicholas
• 5 Things to Pray for Your Heart by Rachel Jones