How and Why Paul Prayed

The phrases we are saying point out what’s on our minds. Prayer probes even deeper, revealing what’s going on not solely in our minds but in addition in our hearts. As our use of time and cash inform one thing of our priorities, so, too, do our prayers.

Once we come to the New Testomony and to Paul’s letters, we acknowledge that the nice apostle and preacher was a person of prayer. We get a glimpse of what Paul was like in personal when he writes in Ephesians 3, “Because of this I bow my knees” (v. 14). He knew how one can proclaim an enormous Christ from a lowly place—specifically, on his knees in prayer. His public ministry was the outworking of his personal devotion.

Prayer reveals what’s going on not solely in our minds but in addition in our hearts.

The premise for Paul’s praying was the Gospel. Chapters 1 and a couple of inform us that a lot:

In him you additionally, while you heard the phrase of reality, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit …. So then you might be not strangers and aliens, however you might be fellow residents with the saints and members of the family of God. (Eph. 1:13; 2:19)

Having taught the Ephesians what was true of them, Paul the pastor then prayed that the Gospel can be skilled by them. Paul tied his instruction to the Ephesians with intercession for them. Then, having supplied them with data, he prayed it residence. Paul understood what many too simply overlook: that “until the LORD builds the home, those that construct it labor in useless” (Ps. 127:1). Paul was totally depending on God—and he confirmed it in prayer.

Paul’s pastoral prayer in Ephesians 3:14–21 reveals a minimum of two rules for prayer, displaying how preaching and prayer work collectively.

Prayer Is Selfless

First, the apostle highlights a number of dimensions of the selfless nature of prayer in verses 14–19.

Selfless in Expression

Prayer is, by definition, a selfless act. A confident individual gained’t pray. There’s no must; he has every little thing already lined. Neither is a self-righteous individual going to hope; she has no sin to admit, no reward to supply. However true prayer entails stooping low earlier than a holy God, saying with Paul, “I bow my knees earlier than the Father” (v. 14).

Jesus understood this. Once we learn the Gospels, we sense that Jesus was praying on a regular basis—excess of what’s recorded for us. Think about the Higher Room Discourse, for instance, in John’s Gospel. After instructing His disciples in chapters 13–16, Jesus then concludes His instructing with the nice prayer in John 17.

Prayer is, by definition, a selfless act. A confident individual gained’t pray.

The lesson for us is evident: If Jesus Christ, the best trainer on the earth, adopted up His instruction by prayer, what of us? And if Paul, enabled by the Spirit of God to serve the church buildings, bowed earlier than God in a Roman jail and prayed, what of us?

Whether or not we pray, how a lot we pray, and about what we pray says an amazing deal about our view of God and of self.

Charles Simeon, who served as minister at Holy Trinity Cambridge for fifty-four years, as soon as remarked in a sermon that “it was less difficult for a minister to evangelise and research 5 hours, than to hope for his folks one half-hour.” Tragic, however true! If we’re sincere, many people discover it simpler to speak to our colleagues than to speak with God. We’re content material being engaged in busy work relatively than with slowing down and acknowledging God in prayer as we ought.

Selfless in Posture

But prayer is selfless not solely in its expression but in addition in its posture. We discover Paul on his knees earlier than God in prayer, declaring together with his posture what’s in his coronary heart: With out God, he’s totally helpless.

Jewish males usually prayed standing, not kneeling. That is why each the Jewish Pharisee and the Jewish tax collector in Jesus’ parable are standing, we’re instructed, in prayer (Luke 18:11–13). However Paul bows his knees, in all probability conscious of the promise in Isaiah, through which “each knee shall bow” earlier than God on the consummation of historical past (45:23).

Whether or not we pray, how a lot we pray, and about what we pray says an amazing deal about our view of God and of self.

The posture of our hearts earlier than God is the problem. And Paul, gripped with awestruck surprise earlier than the creator of each household on earth, stoops low earlier than Him.

Selfless in Focus

Lastly, and importantly, Paul doesn’t pray for himself in Ephesians 3. He prays that “you” could “be strengthened” (v. 16), “stuffed with all of the fullness of God” (v. 19). These are selfless requests.

Writing from jail, the apostle doesn’t petition God for his launch, nor does he ask for an enchancment in his circumstances. As a substitute, profiting from each alternative, he yearns for the reason for the Gospel to achieve past his jail cell and to the nations.

Prayer Is Religious

Prayer, nevertheless, is just not solely selfless; it’s additionally religious—which can appear an apparent approach to describe it!

Lots of the issues which can be the main focus of latest prayers are absent in Paul’s prayer. For instance, he wasn’t involved mainly with materials issues, not as a result of they weren’t urgent or have been by nature invalid however as a result of he acknowledged that the best want of women and men is religious, not bodily.

Like us, the Ephesians had issues for meals, garments, shelter, taxes, marriage, employment, and so forth. Paul would have shared on this concern to some extent too. However Paul’s gaze was everlasting. His most urgent wants existed within the religious realm.

Didn’t Jesus train this very precept? Speaking with His disciples, who have been involved about their meals and their garments, our Lord stated,

I inform you, don’t be troubled about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, nor about your physique, what you’ll placed on. Isn’t life greater than meals, and the physique greater than clothes? … Search first the dominion of God and his righteousness, and all this stuff might be added to you. (Matt. 6:25, 33)

In different phrases, prayer’s hub is all the time religious. Because the hub on a bicycle wheel is the important thing to the entire thing functioning correctly, so the religious nature of prayer is essential to a Christian’s vitality.

The posture of our hearts earlier than God is the important thing concern in prayer.

It’s as if Paul reminds the Ephesians in praying this fashion, “Amid all of your urgent wants, what issues is that you simply bow your knees earlier than the Almighty. He is aware of what you want. He is what you want.”

The guts of what Paul is saying right here lies in a bit phrase in verse 21: “To him be glory within the church and in Christ Jesus.” When a church has Christ, that church has every little thing. When a church doesn’t have Christ, that church has nothing.

Might God’s folks attempt to be in Christ and to be like Christ, earlier than whom we bow and on whom we rely for each matter.

This text was tailored from the sermon “I Bow My Knees — Half One” by Alistair Begg.