How Do We Pray For Others?

Introduction

Having a meaningful prayer said for you is both encouraging and uplifting.

Such as at our installation.

Such as prayers of parents, prayers offered at significant events like weddings or baptisms, or during visitation / pastoral care.

It is meaningful to have a pastor / elder / mentor / parent-figure who genuinely walks with you through life (caring and leading).

This is Paul with all the NT churches he planted but specifically here with the Ephesian church.

In chapter 1 he first extends blessing on them (1.3-14), offering continued prayers (1.16) and thanksgivings (1.15-23).

Now in chapter 3 he has continued his prayers for them … beginning in 3.1 but finishing here in today’s verses.

“For this reason ...”

Because of who we are in Christ, Paul prays for our spiritual well-being.

How do we pray for each other? Are we praying as Paul prays?

We have been pursuing what it means to be ONE With Christ and ONE With Each Other in these first 3 chapters.

As Paul closes this section, he offers a simple and yet eloquent / basic and yet profound prayer for the church.

It expresses how our identity in Christ lives out both personally and corporately.

Read .

Wes

A Posture of Humility (14-15)

Our tone of voice and body language often say more than our words do.

How we say something is more influential than the exact words we choose.

How we make people feel encourages or discourages others more than the specific message does.

Paul approaches the churches in his NT letters in a way / a tone / an attitude where they cannot help but feel cared for and valued.

His care and prayers are consistent and genuine.

His encouragement is real.

His correction is direct and realistic.

* They are each valued deeply even when being corrected.

Paul does not come in “high and mighty”.

He comes in a posture of humility and servitude.

His care is exemplified in both his tone and words.

How do we speak with one another?

Do others feel cared for in how we speak and pray?

Are we known for building others up?

Encompassed In Prayer (14a)

Grandpa and Grandma … died one week apart and each funeral was distinct.

While Grandpa was the one in ministry (preaching and evangelism), Grandma prayed.

Everything Grandpa did was bathed in Grandma’s prayers.

The same is with Paul … all he says and does is bathed in prayer.

Can we say the same about ourselves?

Our transition process had prayer embedded in it … are we maintaining that prayerfulness?

“For this reason ...”

He returns to the prayer started in v.1.

He offers this prayer because of who they are in Christ.

We are saved by grace through faith.

We are ONE With Christ.

We are created with purpose … each one of us.

* It is into this reality that Paul prays.

I want us to think through how we pray for one another.

Are we putting aside our differences and able to prayerfully support one another?

Do we pray for specifics or only generally for one another?

In what ways are we praying towards true and full encounters with Christ?

Do our prayers flow out of our own experience with Christ?

Personally and Worshipfully Coming (14b)

When a man goes on one knee to propose marriage to a woman ...

It is not purely romantic, it represents a love and offer of service.

It is a demonstration of value, putting the woman ahead of himself.

This is the attitude in which Paul writes, teaches, and prays.

He serves the church but even more so the Lord.

He prays in a posture of humility … having considered the majesty of God / the majesty of His redemptive work through Christ, he humbly praises God, acknowledging His lordship and sovereignty.

… “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,” (, ESV)

A call to praise and obedience.

A posture of humility and service.

Is this how we come before God and one another?

It is this posture that depicts being ONE With Christ … and ONE With Each Other.

The reality of God as our Father makes this intensely personal.

Paul has already reminded us we are chosen and adopted.

It is personal and yet worshipful.

* In what manner do we pray for one another?

Finding True Identity (15)

As Jesus teaches us to pray in , Paul follows the principle of beginning in worship / starting with acknowledging the Lord’s place in our lives.

Our name is a primary way in which we are identified.

Our “name” is given by the “Father”.

Our identity is in Him.

He defines who we are.

* A personal and worshipful acknowledgment of God.

This is an expression of truth.

It is stated as a fact.

It is a basis upon which the prayer is based.

Do we approach God confidently … sure of both our salvation and our identity as His child?

Do we truly pray for this to be the reality in one another’s lives?

Too often we only pray for the situations we face.

Should we not prayerfully seek a fuller experience of who we are in Christ within our circumstances (instead of trying to be freed from them)?

The Fullness of God (16-19)

Now we have seen Paul’s posture of humility / an attitude of service … coming both submissively and worshipfully.

These next verses are his actual prayer, expressing what he seeks for the church of Ephesus.

These verses are what inspire the question, “How do we pray for others?”

They convicted me on how shallow our prayers can often be.

Is this how our prayers for one another look?

Is this how we pray for our spouse, children, small groups, Sunday School class, people we are at odds with?

Paul prays for the fullness of God to be their reality.

Spirit Power (16)

Do we pray that each of us would be strengthened with the power of the Holy Spirit?

We often pray for endurance and strength in difficult situations.

What about for evangelism, in parenting, facing bills, and in planning church programs?

We seek strength to “survive” … but Paul seeks something greater for us.

I often joke when doing manual labour that no one has ever hired me for my strength.

Humanly we tend to focus on physical ability or enduring a difficult situation when we speak of strength.

But Paul seeks an inner strength which is more … it includes spiritual determination, emotional consistency, and ongoing faith.

It is a strength given by the Holy Spirit.

It is of God … in us but not of us.

A strength that enables us to not only make it through life but to do so in a victorious way.

Is this the strength we seek for ourselves, our families, one another, and those we bring Christ to?

Indwelling Presence (17a)

Do we pray for the indwelling presence of God in our lives personally and corporately?

We know Christ lives in us … and yet we often take it for granted.

We know we are filled with the Spirit and yet often expect Him to do all the work.

When I think of “dwelling” I most often think of kids … as they are able to fill whatever space they are given.

Christ fully lives in us.

He has taken up residence.

It is up to us how at home He feels.

Are we truly open to Him?

The power already spoken of hinges upon His presence.

We can only be strong with Him in us.

The two are inter-connected.

As family, to show care and value, we are often “in each other’s business”.

As we live and function together, we are strengthened in all we face.

As a church family, as we live and struggle inter-dependently in life, we strengthen one another.

As a follower of Christ, as we live in the power and presence of God, we thrive in life.

Do we seek this for one another?

Rooted In Love (17b,19a)

Do we pray that love is not only demonstrated by our lives but also serves as the foundation of it?

Trees have roots … some have a main tap root, others have many roots that go out from its base … but all trees have roots.

A friend told me of her larger poplar which had a fungus at its base and then blew over in the wind.

Roots hold trees up … even in all their height and breadth.

What grounds us?

What are our lines of nourishment and strength?

What keeps us stable in life?

In , we are told, “God is love.”

Love is synonymous with God; they are equal; they define one another.

God is love.

It is a principle and obligation but also a free choice and feeling.

It is duty but genuine and meaningful.

Love is offered even when not deserved.

In Colossians … “he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” (, ESV)

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (, ESV)

Christ is at the centre of our salvation and life.

In His love, presence, and power, we become established and secure.

Is this what we seek for one another?

Full Comprehension (18)

The fourth prayer item for the Ephesian believers / for us is full comprehension.

Teachers seek a student’s understanding of the subject being taught.

Parents seek a child’s understanding of the values and practices being passed on.

Paul prays for an ever-deepening understanding of who God is and the reality of our salvation in Christ.

* Do we seek this for ourselves?

* Do we pray for this to be reality in one another’s lives?

Think of ways for this to be applied in life.

Steve Duncan was here representing camp ministry last week; we pray for the salvation of the campers, but do we pray towards and provide avenues for a deepening of their new faith?

One of the ways we pursue deeper comprehension of the Lord’s message to us at NCC each Sunday is delve deeper into the passage in the adult Sunday School class; we are helping each other deepen comprehension.

… “I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.” (, ESV)

As we grow in godliness, our understanding of God grows both deeper and more personal.

We grasp more and more of the immeasurable reality of the riches and person of Christ.

Are we growing and helping others grow in comprehending God?

Filled With God (19b)

And, lastly, praying for one another that we would be filled with the fullness of God.

Seeking all that God is in each of our lives.

That we understand, experience, and know Him as fully as possible.

… “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (, ESV)

“until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” (, ESV)

We will never become God or divine or celestial in any way.

However, we are being sanctified.

More and more holy and loving.

More and more like Him.

Let us prayerfully seek after His holiness and love both personally and corporately.

“To Him Be Glory!” (20-21)

Our passage ends with the benediction / doxology we have already read a number of times … and with which we will again close our service today.

Typical in many ways ...

… but extremely challenging in the expectation it places upon the church.

A clear statement of praise and acknowledgement … “to him be glory”!

Surprising Capability (20a)

Praise be to God who is far greater / far more capable than our minds can even imagine!

The God to whom Paul made these requests far exceeds our capacity of asking and even dreaming.

The God to who we pray can not only answer our prayer but can do so in a way that far exceeds anything we can come up with.

Is our faith growing in conjunction with the deepening of our comprehension of God and His ways?

Are we praying for one another in full acknowledgement of who God is?

* As we pray for one another, are our prayers encompassed in praise and faith?

At Work Within Us (20b)

Getting a ride on Doug’s trike … vague threat of whether I could handle the power … it was strikingly and surprisingly powerful.

I was caught off-guard by it.

There was power within that trike I had not expected.

There is an extreme power also at work within us.

We usually under-estimate it.

We rarely access it, seeking it when in need but not so much in everyday living.

The mystery of the gospel (that Jews and Gentiles together form the body of Christ ) was and is mind-blowing.

No one would have thought they could function together.

No one would think a community based in love would be a driving factor in our lives and world.

But, the power of God / the power of the gospel is at work within us!

Do our prayers and lives acknowledge this power?

As we pray for one another, are we seeking this power within our lives?

To Him Be Glory … in the church, in Christ Jesus, and for all time! (21)

To God be the glory!

We praise God for the work of Christ on the cross and in our lives.

He is the One who brought Jew and Gentile together.

He formed the Church out of all the misfits we are without Him.

But, most surprisingly and challengingly is the praise of God in the church.

God’s glory is expected to be clearly obvious in us the church.

The miracle of God’s love happens here among us.

To Him be glory!

… in us!

… through Christ!

… for all time!

Let us all agree!

One of the traditions in the church I grew up in was to end prayer with saying , “And all the people said … amen.”

I will do this at times but do not want to assume agreement upon you.

However, saying “amen” is affirming our agreement with what has been said, taught, or prayed.

It states we are on the same page.

It affirms what we stand for.

Paul does not end the letter here … but does end his prayer.

“Amen.”

A clear and concise affirmation of all that has been said, that we are ONE With Christ and ONE With Each Other.

Do you agree?

Do you affirm what Paul has written?

Are you in agreement with all that we believe?

Conclusion

How do we pray for one another … the ones we like and the ones we struggle with?

How are we praying towards a deepening of our comprehension of the love and saving work of God?

How are we praying into the lives of those we have spiritual influence over?

How are we moving towards the fullness of God in our lives personally and corporately?