The Apostle Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers (Ephesians 1:15–16 KJV)
The Spirit recorded the prayers of the Apostle Paul for the Ephesians for us to learn from. There are three such prayers, the first is recorded in Ephesians 1. He notes that he always mentioned the Ephesian Christians in his prayers. A major question that should come to our minds is “what was he praying about?”. This brings us to a significant issue regarding the content of our prayers. Think about this for a second. What is the content of most of our prayers?
Pretend you are in God’s place for a second, receiving billions of prayers from the earth each day. What do you think the content of most of those prayers is? You certainly will hear prayers full of request for one thing or another, one complaint after the other, one narration of misery after the other. There are others who are more spiritual, and their prayers are centered on spiritual warfare. It seems these were born to fight the devil. There is a place for all of these prayers, but they are indeed not supposed to be the mainstay of the content of our prayers.
Let me challenge you today. Pick up your concordance or Bible software and look up all the times that the Spirit recorded the prayer of the Apostles, including the prayer of Jesus and compare the content of those prayers with the average prayer of the believer today. Let the results speak for themselves to you.
This is what Paul was praying for the Ephesians, consistently.
“Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:16–17, KJV)
He knew they needed financial breakthroughs but that was not the focus of his prayers. He probably prayed for them at some point about this but his prayer every single day was that they should grow to spiritual maturity and know God more. Let me share a secret of the Spirit with you. You do not win the battles of life as a Christian by going after the problem. You win by going after God. This is a hard truth for young Christians to understand but the more you mature in the Spirit, the more your focus will shift from your cares to God and His kingdom!
Let God and His purposes and plans for your life and the Church fill your prayers. As you focus on God and His kingdom, He will take care of the others!
MEDITATE
What is the primary content of your prayers?
APPLY THE WORD
Become conscious of what you are praying for. Please remember to do the assignment above, just looking up the content of the prayers recorded in scriptures to see God’s will for you.
PRAY
Ask the Spirit of the Lord to help our weaknesses in knowing what to pray for.
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This opened my eye and heart to the thing I haves been praying for,know they are going to change,very helpful,thank you .lester ( of Pembroke n.c.)
Hi Lester,glad to know that devotional was helpful to you. Thank you for the feedback. Blessings