Praying Like Paul

Ephesians 1:15-23 Praying like Paul. One of my childhood memories is that from time to time my mum used to rearrange the furniture in the living room!! Apparently there are beneficial psychological effects to doing this especially if you are feeling out of sorts, or out of control. Rearranging your personal space can give an allusion of control, autonomy and even a momentary sense of satisfaction. Very often when it comes to prayer, we almost by default, approach God with a ‘furniture rearranging’ attitude. We would never literally ask God to come and redesign our living rooms, but often we want God to come and change our circumstances, or come and help us change them. Just let me say that there is nothing wrong in asking God to change our circumstances. Is this not what Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane when he prayed ‘Father take this cup from me.’ Luke 22:42. Sometimes God does answer our prayer for changed circumstances, but very often, He doesn’t. Often God does not rescue us from the fiery furnace, often He allows his people to be put into the lion’s den. Sometimes God takes the cup from us, but for the most part God allows difficult circumstances to remain. So if that is the case, then what is the point in praying? Why bother praying if most of the time God is not going ‘rearrange the furniture?’ It is very easy for any of us to turn prayer into an expression of ‘crisis management,’ but in doing that we miss the primary purpose of prayer and we reduce our our ability to practice it. In the new Testament there are about 41 recorded prayers of Paul. Writing about Paul prayers Tim Keller said:- “It is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul’s prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their circumstances.” It is not that Paul did not care for people, but his understanding of prayer was very different than ours. As we look at Ephesians 1:15-23 we are going to see how Paul understood prayer and how he understood humanity. 1. He begins by telling who he is praying for. ‘For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people,’ Paul is praying for people he describes as having Faith in Jesus, and love for people. I am sure Paul could have given us a lot of ‘negative’ reasons why he should pray for these people. Ephesus was the centre of the worship of Artemis or Diana. At one time when he was there, some of his companions were attacked by a mob. Paul knows the stress and pressure the church is under. But instead of praying the obvious for them i.e. protection for them, Paul’s prayer was because of their faith and love. The reason for this is that Paul understood that prayer was much more than getting God to act; he saw it as an essential requirement for authentic humanity. We need to try to see prayer as more than making requests to God, even more than having a conversation with God, even though they are an important part of prayer. Prayer is something we need to do in order know God and know ourselves. I find it very interesting that we rarely ask for prayer regarding our spiritual lives, I have never received a pray text from Matt asking us to pray for --- they want to grow spiritually, or they want to know God better. We see ourselves primarily as physical people with physical needs, when in reality we are primarily spiritual people who live in physical bodies. Keller wrote “Prayer is the only entryway into genuine self-knowledge. It is also the main way we experience deep change—the reordering of our lives. Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things he has for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire. It is the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life.” 2. How did Paul pray? ‘I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.’ Paul prayed with an attitude of continual gratitude. When Paul thought of these people, his heart was full of joy and appreciation. He valued them, and this effected how he prayed for them. We are a small church, which means we have more opportunity to know each other and more reason to be thankful for each other. 3. What did Paul pray for? There is a lot in this prayer which we will look at, but you could sum it up by saying that Paul was praying that they would Know God. ‘The whole meaning of prayer is that we may know God.’ Oswald Chambers. Prayer makes life’s most important requirement a reality, that is to know God. That is why prayer is so important for through it we get to know God. The word Paul uses for knowledge in verse 17 is epignosis which carries the idea of having a knowledge that produces practical results. Imagine going to do a three year computer course, but never seeing or using a computer. That would be stupid, yet that is how we so often approach our relationship with God, we accumulate a lot of knowledge about God, then live as if we don’t know him. Let me share this quote:- “We have often done well knowing the mind of God in our churches today. We have not done as well knowing His heart. We have largely become a church that pursues insights, principles, and theological concepts. No other church in history has had sounder theology or has known as much about God as many of our churches do today. However, we seem to know so little about His heart. Maybe this has troubled you, too. With all our insight, all our knowledge, all our information, and all our depth of theology, we seem to have so much difficulty functioning in the most basic Christian things, like personal holiness and loving people more than things. In our churches we are so easily hurt, and we hold on to those hurts for so long. We easily walk away from one another and quickly leave our churches when we experience disappointments and failures. There is often much judging and little compassion. Too many people remain alone in their pain. God desire is to reveal His heart to us and to build His heart into us as we seek His face. Insight alone does not transform us; only the things that flow from the heart of God transform the lives of people. As God opens His heart to be known by us and as He builds His heart into us, His love will flow through us to those who are in desperate need of His forgiveness, His compassion, His healing, and His life.” ― Bill Mills. 4. Paul prays for a number of things that make knowing God possible. a. Paul prays for a Spirit of wisdom and revelation The word “wisdom” in this verse is from the Greek word sophias. It is an old Greek word that was used to describe insight or wisdom not naturally attained. In other words, this is not natural human wisdom — It is the ability to know how to act appropriately and righteously in every circumstance. The word “revelation” is from the word apokalupsis. It refers to something that has been veiled or hidden for a long time and then suddenly, almost instantaneously, becomes clear and visible to the mind or eye. It is like pulling the curtains out of the way so you can see what has always been just outside your window. Look at the order Paul prays, He prays for wisdom, then revelation. We need wisdom to know God, wisdom to handle appropriately the revelation. Wisdom is the ability to understand the truth God revealed to you and apply it practically to you life. F. F. Bruce wrote, “Men who know many things are all around us; men of spiritual wisdom are so rare that they are worth far more than their weight in gold.” ‘I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.’ It is very easy for anyone of us to go through life, living with a sense despair or self doubt, believing that we are victims of our circumstances. There seems to be an epidemic of hopelessness were so many believe that life is worthless. In Northern Ireland last year 185 people took their lives. According to the Samaritans in the UK and Ireland 6213 people took their own lives in 2017. It is reckoned that in the USA someone takes their own life every 12 and a half minutes. Biblically hope is not wishful thinking, but a concrete certainty that is based upon the character and word of God. Hope is experienced through God working in your heart giving you a holy confidence that has nothing to do with present circumstances. Paul prays that these Christians see past the present to the hope they have been called. In his book The Message of Prayer, Tim Chester give some examples that explain the power of hope. Helen has a long-term illness. She has prayed that God will cure her. Other Christians have said that God always heals those who ask with faith and so now she cannot understand why God has not healed her. Is it because she does not have enough faith? Or is it that God does not love her? Maybe she is not a child of God at all. So not only does she have to cope with her physical problems, now she has a crisis of faith. But suppose you prayed that her eyes would be enlightened to know the hope to which she was called. Helen would realise that God does not put everything right in this life. She would realise, as Paul says, ‘that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’ Peter is a student. Leaving home, growing up and starting his studies have forced to think hard about life for the first time. And what he sees is a crazy, mixed up world – a world of suffering and pain, of frustration and disappointment. At best he might hope to get a good career – working hard, climbing the corporate ladder, but for what? What would it all add up to? Like the writer of Ecclesiastes he looks out on the world and concludes that all is meaningless. But what if you prayed that Peter would see beyond this material world? The final verse of Ecclesiastes says that one day God will bring every deed into judgement. One day God will bring meaning to this world and realising that would bring meaning to Peter’s life.’ Hope comes from knowing God. c. Paul prays that they realise that they are God’s inheritance. ‘I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,’ This verse says something that is mind bowing. Paul is asking God to help the Christians in Ephesus to understand that they are God’s inheritance. It is not easy for us to get our minds around this, every thing belongs to God, so how can he receive an inheritance if he already owns all things. An inheritance is something you look forward to in the future, I think God is looking forward to the future when he will live among his people in unbroken fellowship. You are so valuable to God that he sees you as part of his inheritance. Sometimes we are like those people on the antique road show, who bring along something that has lay in the back of a cupboard for years, or has been stored in the attic not realising how valuable it is. We view ourselves as of little value, even worthless and sometimes we live at the back of the cupboard, or in the attic, feeling we have nothing to give, unable to accept Gods valuation of us. d. Paul prays that they would know the power that rose Jesus from the dead and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,..’ What would the power of the resurrection look like in our lives? When you read about Jesus after the resurrection in the gospels it seems to me that his main focus was the restoring and building relationships. Mary Magdalene at the tomb, John 20:11-18 The woman at the tomb Matthew 28:8-10 Peter Luke 24:34 Two on the road to Emmaus Luke 24:13:32 The disciples without Thomas John 20:19-23 The disciples with Thomas John 20:24-29 The reinstatement of Peter John 21:1-23. The glory of resurrection power is that it empowers and enables you to go to others wherever they are and build Christ honouring relationships with them. Conclusion Personally I have found Paul’s prayer very challenging, what would it be like if we began to pray for each-other in the way Paul prayed. Here is something to help, each day this week take one of these topics and pray them for others in the church. Thank God for the people in our church and for how he has used them to enrich our lives. Pray for them, asking God, That they may have the needed wisdom to know God and are able to apply his truth to their lives. That they may have hearts that are open to revelation, a deeper and fuller understanding of the truth. That they may see the hope that they have been called to. That they may know that their true value as God’s Inheritance. That they may experience Jesus’ resurrection power so they can heal and build relationships.