15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him,18– since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength.
In verse 15, we see that Paul is commending the Ephesian church for, first of all, their faith in Jesus Christ and, second, for their love for their fellow believers. This parallels the new "first and second commandments" Jesus enunciated in Matthew 22:38-39. Paul is commending what he desires to see continue. He issues similar commendations to the Colossian church (Col. 1:4, Philemon 1:5) and to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:13).
Paul goes on to say that he shows his love for the Ephesians by praying unceasingly for them. What specifically does he pray?
- That God will give them wisdom as their knowledge of Him increases. (They are not the same thing, you know -- - wisdom and knowledge. You can know a lot about Jesus and not have Him in your heart. You can have Him in your heart as Savior, and know a lot about Him and still not possess but a thimble-full of wisdom and discernment.)
- That they might have hope that His calling is steadfast, firm and sure. (It's so easy to doubt that God is with us, isn't it? So easy to doubt that He cares, at times?)
- That they might realize how very rich they are in Jesus Christ!
- That, as believers, they might realize the extent of God's power (in their lives and in others')
I don't know about you, my readers, who are believers, but this has been my experience: I don't pray for my fellow believers as much as I should. There are about 1000 people who attend my church regularly, and while I pray for our church as a whole, I neglect to pray as much as I should for individuals with whom I minister, shoulder-to-shoulder.
See, Paul really believed that God would work, move, demonstrate His glory, in response to Paul's prayers. Because he believed that so strongly, he prayed "unceasingly". I have to question my own level of belief when confronted with my own comparative prayerlessness. My prayers tend to be narrow and more "reactive" than "proactive". In other words, if someone asks me to pray for them, I will. But, do I pray for them "proactively", as Paul describes here? Not so much.
Do you know what happens when we fail to pray for our brothers and sisters (our shoulder-buddies) in this fashion? We run the risk of loving them poorly.
Let me give you a painful example, painful to me, at least. I was confronted last week with the reality that I had failed a sister in Christ, one who was most definitely a "shoulder-buddy". (Get the scene of two people hooked together like two oxen who bear the yoke on their backs in order to pull the wagon.) She had given clues that she had unmet needs in our local Body of Christ, but I was oblivious. (If you are now thinking, "This can't end well"....well, you are right.)
When we don't pray for each other, we are not "in tune" with one another. We become like a wonderful orchestra whose instruments are slightly off-key. And, as a result, instead of producing heavenly music, what's produced is a ghastly cacophony of sound. Have you ever gone to hear a live symphony or band performance? Before it begins, the instruments are all playing....whatever they want to. Cacophony! Then, the concertmaster, usually the first chair violin (orchestra) or first chair clarinet or oboe (band) silences the group by giving one long, clear note. Immediately, the musicians tune their individual instruments to that one unifying note. When they next start to play a beautiful piece of music it is just that....beautiful!
Prayer does that! It unifies believers in the heavenly realms. I don't understand prayer more than just a little tiny bit. If you are an expert, then please enlighten me. But, in my view, prayer is like looking through the keyhole....You can see a very limited view, and what you DO see is distorted! You have no idea what else is "out there", on the other side of the door. Our perspective of prayer is like that! We pray, not being allowed to see all that our prayers accomplish! That is God's way.
Sometimes, He allows us to see clear answers; a lot of the time, He does not. Almost all the time, we have no clue as to the effectiveness of our prayers. Accordingly, we tend to think prayer does not matter. Many Christians view it as merely a Christian "convention", an archaic trapping of religious gatherings.
How sad, when the Bible makes clear that prayer is indispensable to the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged.
Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Luke 18:1 And he spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
The Happy Pastor says this: "Prayer is the essential work – everything else flows out of it: worship, evangelism, ministry."1
You know, I've noticed that, when I blog about prayer, I don't get many hits. Christians don't like to read about prayer because, like me today, it stirs their hearts with conviction. Non-Christians view it as "talking to the sky". Maybe you are like me and are convicted about your "prayer life". If so, then let's take deliberate steps to go before God's throne of grace more often. What a wonderful privilege it is!
Pray your own closing prayer here today. :)
Source:
1 https://thehappypastor.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/the-centrality-of-prayer/
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