Alba 1-22-2023
HOW TO PRAY FOR EACH OTHER
Ephesians 1:15-23
Here are some prayers that children have prayed:
Debbie, age 7, prayed, Dear God: Please send a new baby for Mommy. The new baby you sent last week cries too much.
Jimmy, age 8, prayed, Dear God: How many angels are there in heaven? I would like to be the first kid in my class to know the answer.
Hank, age 7, prayed, Dear Lord: Thank you for the nice day today. You even fooled the TV weather man.
David, age 7, prayed, Dear God: I need a raise in my allowance. Could you have one of your angels tell my father. Thank you.
And Angela, age 8, prayed, Dear God: This is my prayer. Could you please give my brother some brains. So far he doesn’t have any.
We laugh, but often our prayers aren't much better. The Bible tells us flat out: “we do not know what we should pray for as we should” (Romans 8:26). Even Jesus’ closest followers, the apostles, had to ask Him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
We could learn something about prayer. I don’t know about you, but the many of my prayers are all about me and mine: “Lord, help me. Lord, forgive me. Lord, give me.” Or even, “Lord, why me?”
We have a tendency to think about ourselves and our own problems far more than we do other people. But what else—other than helping us get through a bad day—is prayer good for?
What should we be praying for? And how should we be praying? The apostle Paul helps to answer some of those questions in his letter to the church in Ephesus.
In Ephesians chapter one, Paul gives us some keys to a meaningful and effective prayer life. The main key has to do with other people. The simple fact is that Paul prayed for people other than himself!
Let's turn to Ephesians chapter one and read verses 15-23.
15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
When Paul wrote this letter, he was sitting in a Roman prison. His circumstances were incredibly difficult. He had no money, no freedom, and was facing the possibility of execution. But he was still thinking and praying about, and for, other people.
Scripture calls all Christians to a regular prayer life. Romans 12:12 says we should be “continuing steadfastly in prayer”. Colossians 4:2 calls on us to “continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving”. And I Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to "Pray without ceasing".
It was the apostle Paul who wrote those words to the churches. But he not only encouraged Christians to pray, he led by example. As he wrote in Romans 1:9 “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.”
And to the Philippian Christians in Philippians 1:3-4 he said, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy.”
And to the people in Colossians 1:3 he wrote,“We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.”
Paul was a man of prayer. And notice: When Paul prays for these Christians in Ephesus, he never requests material things. His emphasis is always on spiritual things and on Christian character.
If Paul prayed that way, it was worth praying. And it is worth it to us to learn from his prayer. The first thing on his prayer list is that God would “give to (them) the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (verse 17).
He does not ask God to give them what they do not have, instead he prays that God will reveal to them what they already have, and that it will increase. That is how we should pray for others as well.
We all need to know the Lord better, don't we? That is why we should include that in our prayers for each other.
The believer must grow in the knowledge of God. Since we are made in the image of God, the better we know God, the better we know ourselves and each other.
To know God personally is salvation (John 17:3). To know Him increasingly is sanctification (Philippians 3:10). To know Him perfectly is glorification (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).
It is not enough to know God only as Savior. We must get to know Him as Father, Friend and Guide. And the better we know Him, the more satisfying our spiritual lives will be.
So by what means does this specific prayer request to know God better get answered? In the same way that it works in any relationship. You spend time with them. You talk with them. You listen to them. The more you know someone, the more you can appreciate them on a deeper level.
But how can we get to know God better? Isn't that harder? The answer is given in this text. We need to receive “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation” so that we may know Him better.
God has revealed Himself in His Word. The Bible is “God-breathed”. As Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
In the Bible we have that truth. In the Bible we have what we need to know God. In it is wisdom and a revelation of the grace and love of God. It gives us knowledge and understanding to see who the God of the universe truly is.
We need good spiritual eyesight so that our understanding will be enlightened (vs. 18). I always prided myself as having good eyesight. I didn't get glasses until I was in my 50s.
Of course, right away they put me in bifocals. And now I have trifocals. In spite of that, when I got my most recent driver's license renewal, I did it without wearing glasses. But now they tell me that it is time to have cataracts removed. The eye doctor is surprised I can see as well as I can. I suppose I could see better than I do. But I am still waiting.
I do see a spiritual illustration in this though. There are many people who think they see spiritual things clearly, but by what they say and what they do, it is obvious that help is needed.
Instead they develop thoughts of who God is and what God directs, and live not by the very Word of God, but by their own desires of what they perceive God to be.
It is as we study scripture that we grow in our knowledge of the One who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son who gave His life on that cross so that we could be saved.
In John 17:4 Jesus prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” To know God through Christ is to experience eternal life.
No wonder that is top on Paul's prayer list for the church. Let's pray for each other that we can increase in our knowledge of God and apply His wisdom to our lives.
The second thing on Paul's prayer list is that they “may know what is the hope of His calling” (verse 18). The deeper our relationship with God, the stronger is our hope in His promises. Because as we learn to trust Him, we find that He is trustworthy.
In Jesus we have hope, an anchor for our souls that is both sure and steadfast. This hope is not to be confused with wishful thinking. It is an assurance of the reality of what we have not yet fully experienced. It will not disappoint us.
Why? How can we be so sure in our hope? Because the love of God has already been poured into our hearts through the Spirit. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.
We don't deserve it, but God calls us to Himself through Jesus. So those whom He has called are those who have obeyed God’s summons and are believers in Christ.
There is hope in our calling, and it should motivate us to put Jesus first, to live for Him!
To make this more clear, Paul writes in Ephesians 4:1, “I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” God has called us to be special people who live distinct holy lives in this world so that we will be ready for the next. Because our hope includes, “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (vs. 18).
This phrase does not refer to our inheritance in Christ, but of His inheritance in us. Isn't it amazing that God should look on us as a part of His great wealth!
No, this is not the inheritance God has for His people, but this is what God has in His people. His own inheritance which consists in His people. If we think that the purpose of salvation is that we get heaven and God gets us, it might cause us to think that God is being short-changed.
But if we could really see the church as God sees it, like a beautiful bride (Eph. 5:27), we would understand how highly God values His inheritance. He plans to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, but holy and blameless.
In Christ we have that hope. And we need to pray for each other to hold tightly to that hope in this often hopeless world.
And then Paul prays that the Christians in Ephesus will know, “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe” (vs. 19).
Last Monday night our electric power shut down. There was an accident near Carthage that knocked down power poles and I heard that 4,000 homes were without electricity. It affected Alba, Oronogo, and Webb City.
Thankfully ours was out just a little over 1 ½ hours from 9:25 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. So it was very dark and we reverted to what people used to have for light at night – a candle. And we went to bed earlier than usual for us.
But when the power goes down, you realize how much you depend on it and how much you need it. Yet we often forget to trust in God's mighty power and limp along on our own. We don't get much enlightenment there, do we?
So how powerful is this power of God in us? Verse 20 tells us that it is the same power, “which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead”.
I do not know about you, but being able to raise the dead is pretty impressive. Well the power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead is the same power He uses in us!
It is the same power He exercised when seating Jesus at His right hand, the same power that He will use to put EVERYTHING under Jesus' feet! That power is what He uses in us.
And God’s power is never out of commission, it is always actively working on our behalf. Through Jesus we can overcome ANYTHING. There is no power that can stand before Him! We need to grasp and embrace this so we can take on the world and never be afraid to stand for Jesus!
We need to pray for each other that we will trust in Jesus enough to say with the apostle Paul, “I can do anything through Christ who strengthens me.”
It is not wrong to pray for physical needs. There are people in need of God's care and healing. We can “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16) for both physical and spiritual needs.
God is on His throne, and we have access to that throne!
May our prayers for ourselves and each other include these requests:
1. That we grow in our knowledge of God with wisdom and insight.
2. That we hold on to our Hope in Him, no matter what circumstances we face.
3. And that we will know and experience God's power working in us to accomplish His purpose in our lives.
That is how we should pray for each other.
CLOSE:
We need to remember that God is powerful! And He answers prayers!
In the summer of 1876, grasshoppers nearly destroyed the crops in Minnesota. So in the spring of 1877, farmers were worried. They were afraid that the dreadful plague would once again visit them, and again destroy the rich wheat crop, bringing ruin to thousands of farmers.
The situation was so serious that Governor John S. Pillsbury proclaimed April 26 as a day of prayer and fasting. He urged every man, woman and child to ask God to prevent the terrible scourge. On that April day all schools, shops, stores and offices were closed. There was a reverent, quite hush over all the state.
But, the next day dawned bright and clear and temperatures soared to what they ordinarily were in midsummer, which was very unusual for April. Minnesotans were devastated as they discovered billions of grasshopper larvae wiggling to life.
For 3 days the unusual heat persisted, and the larvae hatched. It wouldn’t be long before they started feeding and destroying the wheat crop again.
On the fourth day, however, the temperature suddenly dropped, and that night frost covered the entire state. The result? It killed every one of those creeping, crawling pests as surely as if poison or fire had been used. It went down in the history of Minnesota as “the day God answered the prayers of the people”.
That is an awesome story! But understand, it was NOT the first and certainly was NOT the last time that Almighty God answered the prayers of his people. He’s done it time, and time again.
But we need to be sure that we are His people.
