When I was a child, growing up in my parent’s home, it was not uncommon for Dad to ask me to pray for something in the evening, and often it might be for missionaries. To my recollection, my prayers would invariably be something like this —”Dear God, please bless all the missionaries (in the whole world). Amen.”
My lack of knowledge about their particular situations led me to pray less than particular prayers for them.
Even now, having a lack of knowledge about someone’s particular circumstance will lead me (and us) to pray prayers that are too general. Or, we may know someone’s life circumstances particularly well, and that might lead us to the temptation to pray only for those circumstances and not for the greater spiritual needs and purposes God desires to work in that person.
That’s why Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is (and all the recorded prayers in Scripture are) such a personal encouragement and a help at the same time. Not only is this prayer a reminder of what every believer in Christ should become, but it is also an example of how we might pray for one another.
So, as you go to pray for others in the body of Christ this week, pray not only for deliverance from their burdens and trials, but pray that the circumstances of their lives will be used by God to produce:
- a real knowledge of God Himself — pray that their circumstances would lead them to know God (not merely about Him) in such a way that they would know His resurrection power and fellowship in the midst of suffering, producing also conformity to Him.
- a trust in their hope as believers — pray that not only would they not lapse into discouragement and despair, but that they might delight in and be confident in their eternal hope and God’s preserving and keeping ability such that they become a rich testimony to others about Christ’s power.
- a satisfaction in their rich position in Christ — pray that the reality of being adopted into Christ’s family and being owned by God and the gift of the Father to the Son might give them greater happiness than any temporal temptations on earth.
- the demonstration of God’s great power in their lives — pray that they might work out their salvation in their own strength, but in confident dependence on Christ, who is supreme and sovereign over all things, and whose power has been given toward us who believe.
Words of Grace 