With Paul in the School of Prayer

Posted by Theundershepherd on September 20, 2005

I’m preaching through the book of Ephesians and recently came to Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in chapter 3. The great question this prayer left me with for myself and my congregation was, "What can we learn from listening to an apostle pray?" What strikes me while reading this prayer is that Paul’s main concern for the Ephesians is their spiritual standing and health.

Take a moment and read the prayer for yourself:

Ephesians 3:14-19

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."

Paul’s prayer forced me to think about my own prayers and I hope you will consider yours in light of it. How many of our requests of God are of a spiritual nature? If we were asked, "What is more important our souls or our bodies?" I’m sure most people would immediately say, "Our souls!" Yet look at our church prayer lists. When you are at a prayer meeting what percentage of the requests shared are for physical needs compared with spiritual needs? My guess is that in most churches it is 90% to 10% tilted toward physical needs.

Does this mean that we should not pray for physical illness and people who need help in this way? Of course not! The problem with our prayer lists is not what is on them but what is not. When is the last time you prayed that Christ would dwell in your heart by faith? Have you ever asked God to grant your brothers and sisters to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge? Are you asking God to strengthen you in the inner man? It is no wonder that our churches and the Church in general is weak and failing in America, what are we asking God for in prayer?

By all means pray for your sick friends and bring the more temporal needs of this life to God in prayer we are invited and commanded to. But keep in mind also that in God’s economy there is a movement from the greater to the lesser in importance and we must be careful to regard as most important what God says is most important. And what about the lesser needs? God has that covered:

Matthew 6:33

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

I’m sure we would all say that we would love to have the closeness with God that Paul had and be used of God the way he was. Well then, let’s learn from him and pray for the things he prayed for not only for himself but for others.

Comments

One Response to “With Paul in the School of Prayer”

1. Bill K. says:

   September 27, 2005 at 9:45 pm

   Obviously, everyone can improve their prayer llfe, ecspecially when it comes to including more request for the well being of others, rather than ourselves. I find my two weakest areas of prayer are not praising God enough or expressing thankfulness. The other area of prayer I need to work on is actually listening. To often, I request something for myself or someone else, but fail to take the time to get in the Word and meditate on what God says about that particular situation or request. I also think, and I can say from my own experience, that the fact that we tend to focus so much on our physical well-being is a result of our spiritual being and faith being weak.

   Bill