Category Archives: Prayer

Ephesians 6:18

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Ephesians 6:18 (ESV)

18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

I started writing a personal commentary on the book of Ephesians a long time ago in order to provide myself a focus for my Bible reading and study. If you look at the dates of my postings, you’ll notice that it didn’t help much with a daily focus. Just like a lot of things in life, this project has been subject to procrastination.

We’ve just about finished with the section on the armor of God and have arrived at verse 18. The verse begins with “praying always.” What this means to me is that prayer should be a regular activity for us as well as on the tip of our tongues, so to speak, so that our communication with God is ongoing. Elsewhere the Bible says “Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

The next phrase speaks of praying with “all prayer and supplication.” Supplication seems to be the kind of praying we do the best. Supplication is asking and pleading with God to meet some need. But there are obviously several different kinds of prayer. Sometimes the word “prayer” as in this verse is just a general term for all kinds of different prayers. Prayer can include confession, thanksgiving, and praise. You may be able to think of others.

The verse concludes with the challenge to be watchful. A soldier on the night watch is ordered to be watchful. We need to be alert because the enemy is roaming around looking for someone to devour. We need to be alert to circumstances of life and the needs of our friends and neighbors so that we can bring these things to the God of heaven. And we can be especially alert for the temptation opportunities that the devil puts in front of us because this prayer instruction is given as part of our spiritual warfare.

Our praying is to be with perseverance. We should not give up. Even though we are told not to pray meaningless vain repetitions, we are nevertheless admonished to be persistent in our praying. See Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Luke 18 for example.

Besides perseverance, we are to pray supplication prayers for all saints. According to Paul in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority.” So, our prayer list probably should be a lot longer than it is. Praying for all the saints we know includes our family, people who go church with us, other friends who are believers, missionaries, etc. Than, as Paul told Timothy, we need to pray for the President and other leaders who are in authority over us.

To be honest, I find praying difficult. The list always seems so long that my endurance in prayer is not what I would like it to be. Paul talks about striving in prayer (Rom 15:30), and that is what it feels like to me much of the time.

Pray for yourself and for your brothers and sisters, that all of us would be able to be more diligent in our praying. This is not a legalistic thing where you check it off your list and say, “I’ve achieved that goal for today. I’m good.” No, it is a matter of communicating with the God who loves us and letting Him know how great He is, what you’re thankful for, and what you need. The throne room is open. We should go in without fear and bring our requests to Him.

Battle Plan Series – Strategy 1 – Prayer

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Strategy 1  My prayer life is active and effective.

In each of these strategies, I put the strategy as an affirmative statement of fact. That helps us focus on what the goal is. It is a true or false statement. Within our own hearts we know whether the statement is true for us or not.  Is this true for you:  My prayer life is active and effective?

Every Christian man should have an active and effective prayer life. James 5:16 says:  “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

At the conclusion on the passage in Ephesians where Paul discusses the Christian armor, he writes, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”  Ephesians 6:18

The Bible speaks over and over about the importance of prayer and yet praying is a very difficult thing for us. Our lives are busy, and taking the time to pray does not seem to us to be as important as God makes it out to be. And yet it is probably the core of our relationship with Christ along with the reading of His Word.

So if we are struggling with temptation, let’s not look to a lot of phony remedies and psychological tricks. Let’s invest the time it takes to really get to know God by spending some quality time with Him in prayer.

Ephesians 3:18-19

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…may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul ended verse 17 with so that — so that you, being rooted and grounded in love….

Paul thought that what was coming next was so important that he preceded it with a plea to be strengthened by the Spirit of God in the inner man, Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith and being rooted and grounded. What comes next?

That you may have the strength to grasp something. Some truths are so powerful and deep that they take strength — spiritual, emotional, maybe even cognitive strength — to comprehend. Paul had already prayed for that foundational strength.

What is it that we should comprehend? Answer: the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

The love that Christ has for us surpasses the ability to really understand it. And yet, Paul prayed that we would comprehend it with all the Spiritual strength that God has provided.

The love of Christ for us is pure agape love. It is a love that reaches out to us in spite of our sinfulness and rebellion and it draws us in. It does not take account of wrongs and does not hold grievances against us. It is a love that doesn’t seek revenge or reduce its intensity because of the unworthiness of its recipients. It is the pure love of God.

Finally, in verse 19, Paul prays that we might be filled with all the fullness of God! I don’t even know where to begin thinking about this. Filled with the fullness of God?! Really? God’s design for us entails way more than we could ever conceive. We limit our perspective of what we can do for Christ as His power is at work in us. We’re still playing with baby toys rather than growing up to be adult sons, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. What is it that Christ would have us, His adopted and co-heir brothers, do for Him and what blessings might he be ready to pour out on us if we came to understand the big picture?

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 2:14 PM December 17, 2020.

Ephesians 3:17

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So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

In verse 16 Paul had prayed that the people would be strengthened with power in their inner being through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Now in verse 17, he gives the reason. He says, “So that…” What is the reason he prays for this inner strengthening? It is so that Christ (the Messiah) would dwell in our hearts through faith.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what faith is. So many people speak of faith in the abstract. It’s like faith in faith. Just believe. But the question needs to be asked, Believe in what?

In the Christian teaching, faith doesn’t stand alone. Faith believes some things to be true. Paul said in Acts 27:23, “ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.”

In Romans 4, speaking of Abraham, Paul says that he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. (Romans 4:20-21)

The teaching of Christianity is that we are saved by faith, by believing what God says. God says He will give eternal life to those who believe Him. You either believe Him or you don’t. It’s not the prayer, the profession, or the obedience that saves. It is the believing. All of those other things follow.

So back to verse 17. We believe, and Christ dwells in our hearts. Then comes another “so that….” So that you may have the strength to do something (verse 18). We’ll get to that next time. But first, what is the condition for having the verse 18 strength?

Paul is praying that we would be rooted and grounded in love. When a plant is well-rooted, it is difficult to pull up. It’s foundation in the soil is firm. Grounded means established. The foundation is strong. Both words give different pictures of the same thing. Something that is rooted and grounded is firmly established. Such things are difficult to dislodge. It’s the opposite of sitting loosely on top of a pile of sand that the wind and water can erode and undermine.

The Spirit strengthens our inner man with power so that Christ will dwell in our hearts by faith. That will result in our being firmly established in love so that we are not easily shaken or moved from that position. Having been firmly placed in love, we then have the strength to do what verse 18 speaks about.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:53 AM December 14, 2020.

Ephesians 3:16

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That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

Ephesians

Ephesians 3:16

Beginning in verse 16, we enter into the content of Paul’s prayer. Petition 1 – God would grant you to strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person. He asked that this be provided according to the riches of God’s glory.

So, let’s pick this apart a little bit. First we need to consider how great and deep are the riches of God’s glory? I think we would all agree that they are infinite. His glory is infinite and the riches of his glory are infinite. It is according to this richness that he bases his request. In other words, use the vastness of your power and glory to provide what I’m asking for to these people.

What, then, does he request? He is asking that God would strengthen their inner being, their heart and soul. Further, he is asking that it be strengthened with power. Paul is asking that his people would have an inner strength provided by God Himself.

And finally, the mediator of this transfer of strength is the Holy Spirit. In other words, may God use His Holy Spirit to infuse power into you so that the inner man is strengthened.

Isn’t that something we all would like to see in our own lives and in the lives of our fellow Christians. Maybe we should pray for things like this rather than merely praying for health and safety.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:41 AM December 11, 2020.

Ephesians 1:17

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that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,

Paul’s prayer is going to encompass several spiritual requests for the people of Ephesus. But first, we need to notice the source of these spiritual benefits. He speaks of God in two ways. First, he calls Him the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I mentioned at the beginning, but it continues to amaze me that Paul, the Jewish scholar and pharisee, and persecutor of all those identified with Jesus Christ, would say God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is clearly identifying himself with Jesus Christ here. He says our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s acknowledging the lordship of Jesus, and he is referring to Him as the Messiah. This is the God he is asking to provide certain spiritual blessings to them.

The second way he refers to God is as the Father of glory. God is the glorious God who created all things and to whom all glory should be rendered. He is the God of might and dominion, but He is also Abba Father.

What is he asking this God to give them? First, he is asking for God to give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Some translations capitalize Spirit for us to understand that this is the Holy Spirit. The original language didn’t use capital letters and so we don’t know if this was the intention of not. But in any case he is asking that God would give them a wise spirit. A spirit that would be discerning, able to sort out truth from error and apply it to the various situations they faced as individuals and as a church.

He also prays for a spirit of revelation. In the days of the New Testament, the scripture was not completed and God revealed His truth to the apostles in order for the truth to be confirmed. I’m not sure if this is what Paul is referring to here. But the challenge to me is that when we pray for others, we should pray for spiritual things such as a spiritual wisdom from God to be given to others in our family and church fellowship.

This wisdom and revelation should be in the knowledge of God. God has revealed himself in His Word and He wants us to get to know Him in that way. We need to pray for one another that our wisdom and understanding in life would grow according to our knowledge of God. There are all kinds of philosophies swirling around. We need to make sure that what we latch onto is consistent with who God has revealed himself to be, and not just some whim or feeling that happens to be sweeping through at the moment.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 12:09 PM October 5, 2020.

Ephesians 1:16

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I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

Because of what he has heard, Paul tells them that he does not cease giving thanks for them. The faith and love he has heard about ignites a spirit of thankfulness for what God is doing in and through these people. When we hear of faith and love among the people of another church, do these qualities generate a genuine spirit of thankfulness in us?

This thankfulness results in the remembering and mentioning of them in prayer. I don’t know about you, but prayer is hard for me. I don’t like it really, because it demonstrates our total inability and inadequacy to accomplish things in our own strength. But God calls us to pray for ourselves, our family, and our church ministries. In this case, Paul prayed for a church where he had been ministering, and, having heard of their faith and love, he prays for them that God will accomplish many spiritual things in their lives.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:56 AM October 5, 2020.

A Model Prayer

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2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 (ESV)

11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s prayers for the people of God should help us know how we should pray for others. Prayer is a difficult thing, and if you are anything like me, you tend to pray the same things over and over for the people in your life.

Let’s take a look at this prayer from 2 Thessalonians 1.

First, we notice that there is a purpose to his praying: “To this end we pray.” What is this end or purpose? He explains it after the word “that.” So I conclude that it is important to have a purpose in our praying. It should not merely be out of duty or habit, although both motivations are good. But there should be consciousness of who we are talking to, and the reason we are making the request.

Paul’s first purpose is that “God may make you worthy of his calling.” Sometimes we think that we need to be worthy in order for god to call us. But the reverse is true. No one is worthy to be called by God. God calls us, we receive that calling by faith in Him, and then He begins to make us worthy of that calling. In Ephesians 4:1, Paul urges us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling that we’ve been given. We live under the umbrella of the grace of God. There is no condemnation for the Christian (Romans 8:1), and therefore we have space and freedom to grow in our way of living so that we become more worthy of the calling that we already have.

The second aim Paul has is that God “may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.” We all know that our aspirations for living a godly life out pace our ability and resolve to actually live that life. Paul is praying that God would fulfill those resolves. It is God who strengthens the resolve and fulfills those desires for good that we have. And it is also His power that results in the outcomes that we may see coming from our faith.

And what is the actual purpose of these goals? That the Lord Jesus may be glorified in us and ultimately we will be glorified in Him when, at the end of time, all in the universe will be able to see the results of the multifaceted grace of God.

What if we could all pray like this for ourselves, our family members, and our brothers and sisters in Christ. What a powerful effect it would produce in our homes, churches, and country.

Thoughts on Praying for our Leaders

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Some thoughts about praying for leaders.

1 Timothy 2:1–4 (NKJV)

1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

We have a tendency to isolate a verse or two that we’re focusing on from the rest of the passage. That has happened to me in relationship to this passage. We are exhorted by Paul to pray for all who are in authority over us so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. What we usually think about is to pray for wisdom for our leaders so that things stay calm and crisis free so that there won’t be a lot of turmoil in our lives. Praying for wisdom for our leaders is a valid focus of our prayers. But there is more to this passage. First, I notice that the purpose of living a quiet and peaceable life is for the demonstration of our godliness and reverence. But more than that, the passage is focused on the fact that God is a saving God. He desires all men to be saved, and that includes our leaders. I’m starting to think that this should be the main focus of our prayers for our leaders. Leaders who know Christ will govern with wisdom and promote the quiet and peaceable conditions that we desire.

Appropriate Prayer Motivation

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Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came against Jerusalem with threats of destruction. He explained the futility of resisting because he had already overcome the gods of the other nations. Not a one of them was able to stand up against him. Hezekiah has an interesting comment in his prayer to God about this situation. He says, “Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire.” He admits that this part of what the king said is true. But then he recognizes the underlying falsehood of Assyria’s claim. “…for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands – wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.” Hezekiah then goes on to make his request of God, but I was especially impressed with the motivation Hezekiah brought for God to answer the prayer. “Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.” The fame and glory of God was his motivation. May that be our motivation also in our prayers. This incident was found in 2 Kings 19.