10 Ways to Pray for Friends Who are going through a trial

​10 ways to pray for friends who are going through a trial: 

It is difficult to see the people we love go through a trial or testing. We may understand with our "head" that trials produce gold in us and that they refine us and work greater strength in our hearts (as Peter and James tell us: I Peter 1:6-7 & James 1:2-4).   But there is another reality of trials that can crush and break the heart of those we love (Proverbs 13:12).   Here are some ways to pray for your friend, for the outward (circumstances) and inward (heart)  pressures of the trials. 
1. Ask God for His miraculous intervention in your friend's circumstances.  "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is there anything too hard for me?"  (Jeremiah 32:27). 

2. Ask God to be glorified in your friend's life.  Ask God to pour out His abundant grace upon your friend and that, in turn, he/she will continue to receive it by faith. "And I will do whatever you ask in My Name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father"  (John 14:13). 

3. Thank God for the blessings you have received through your friend,"...with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6).

4. Ask God to fill you with His love for your friend,  Let your friend know you are praying for him/her.  Ask God to show you practical ways to help him/her and obey His promptings. "God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us", Romans 5:5b; "...faith expressing itself through love," Galatians 5:6b.  

5. Ask God to reveal Himself to your friend with a greater revelation of His character~ immeasurable love, absolute justice, limitless power, infinite understanding, and unswerving faithfulness.  "He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just.  A faithful God who does no wrong, upright in all He does," Deuteronomy 32:4.

6. Ask God to give your friend greater understanding of His ways.  "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,"  Ephesians 3:20. 

7. Ask God to meet your friend's deepest needs and thank Him that He will. "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit," Psalm 34:18.  And Psalm 147:3, "He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds". 

8. Pray Proverbs 3:5 for your friend.  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Trust is the power to believe what you don't feel, knowledge of what you can't see and the ability to hold onto the invisible and wait for it to be made visible. 

9. Stand in faith as you pray for your friend.  Praise God that He is doing something that is consistent with His Almightiness and His flawless character. "Yet he (Abraham) did not waver in unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised," Romans 4:20-21.

10. Pray for your friend's inner man (heart/soul) to be strengthened.  The outer trial, a force that presses and crushes has an internal component that is tested too, which requires supernatural strength to persevere. "And I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being," Ephesians 3:16.