It's useful to notice the prayers of Paul because what he prays for in the beginning he talks about in the letter.

Maybe you have had this experience when you were in college and went home for Christmas break. You are sitting down for dinner and your mom says, "Let's pray. Lord, thanks for bringing Mary back this vacation. I hope we have a wonderful time. I hope she studies really hard during this time and does well in her school work and earns a lot of money." From that prayer you know that there will be conversations on those subjects! This is true of Paul, too.