I love to read the Apostle Paul’s letters to the various churches that he pastored. I especially love to see how he told them that he was praying for them. We all need the prayers of others at one time or another and as someone who loves to pray for others I want to learn from Paul’s prayers. I want to be a more effective prayer warrior and so today let’s look at some of Paul’s letters and what he told the churches he was praying for.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:18-23, (New American Standard Version 1977 or NASB77).
Paul prays that the Christians in Ephesus will take in what has been taught to them and fully understand what the Christian life is all about. This has to be one of the first steps we take after accepting Jesus Christ and His free gift of salvation, to understand how to walk out our faith, to have an enlightened heart that sees real truth. He explains that this strength will come from God through Christ to guide us in the right direction. I love that! Christ has the power and authority because God gave it to Him and all things including me is under Jesus Christ’s authority. Let’s look at another prayer.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. Romans 1:8-12, (NASB77).
Thanking God for the people Paul prays for is a common theme throughout many of Paul’s letters to the churches. I think that we also should be thanking God for the many Christians that we know and we should be praying for all of them because prayer is an encouragement to many. Paul longs to see the Christians he left behind and his reason is clear, because he wants to be certain that they are walking in their faith correctly. He wants the theology they follow to be the truth and he can only know that by visiting them from time to time. I certainly understand his concern; there was no Bible at that time for them to study like we have today. Many had access to the Old Testament but not the New Testament and so Paul prays for them that they remain faithful. Paul also longs to see these dear brothers and sisters in Christ not at all unlike us today. I have lived many different places and met and loved many different Christians and to hear twenty or thirty years later from them and see that they have continued in the faith is always an encouragement to me. I reconnect through social media or phone calls and e-mails but Paul didn’t have such tools available to him so he wrote to them and longed to come for a short visit. Here’s another of Paul’s prayers.
And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6:17-20, (NAAB77).
In this passage Paul isn’t really praying rather he is asking for prayers. This makes me think of how important it is to pray for our pastors and our church leaders. The job of a pastor is not an easy one. When people are going through rough waters in life they often call upon their pastors. Yet pastors don’t always have the answer to life’s dilemmas and yet many of us expect them to. When someone is ill they call the pastor, when someone dies, they call the pastor, when someone divorces they call the pastor, when someone’s child is rebellious they call the pastor. Pastors need a firm foundation from the Bible but they also need the prayers of their congregation to keep going and not get discouraged or slammed by Satan. Paul asked specifically that the Christians in Ephesus pray for him to be bold in his preaching.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:3-6, (NASB77).
I want to be the kind of person that a fellow Christian thanks God every time they remember me. More importantly I want to be prayed for. I can imagine that you do as well. Paul prays in a specific way when he thinks of the people at the church in Philippi, with joy in my every prayer for you all. In other words Paul rejoices because of the Christians and the work that they are continuing, work he began when he planted a church there. Isn’t that cool?
We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Colossians 1:3-12, (NASB77).
Don’t you just love it? Paul is praying for the Christians in Colossians because a man he converted to Christianity named Epaphras has told him all about this new church of his. What a joy this must have been to Paul to see someone he taught reaching out and teaching others about Jesus Christ. Notice what Paul prays for, an increase in the knowledge of God, wisdom and being able to understand things of God leading to good fruit being produced and strength and power to continue working for the Lord’s kingdom, to be steadfast and grounded as well as patient and also joyful. We all need people praying for us like this. Are you praying for your fellow Christians and pastor and missionaries and churches all around the world? I don’t know about you but I need to do a better job of praying for others. While this is not an exhaustive study on the prayers of Paul I think it has been a good reminder to me of the things I can be praying for to help encourage my fellow Christians. I hope this has been helpful to you as well.
Until next time…Katherine
Katherine Speaks 