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LIFE-CHANGING PRAYERS
By Rev. Will Nelken
________________________________________
Presented at Trinity Community Church, San Rafael, CA, on Sunday, December 12, 2021
To pray is to engage with the Creator of the universe—the One who has the power to speak
things into existence out of nothing!
It’s like plugging your expended battery into a power socket—to refuel, to refill!
However, not all power sockets are alike.
The 5 Watt socket that came with my iPhone was
ample, but it could not charge my iPad, even when plugged in all day and night, because the
iPad required a 12 Watt socket for its larger battery.
So, HOW you pray makes a difference as to how much power is conveyed.
Today, we’re going to consider together Paul’s four Life-Changing Prayers.
But, before we do,
let’s think about a few generalities.
Many of our prayers are prompted by personal needs—obvious things, like food, shelter, and
healing, or emotional needs, like comfort, courage, peace, and joy.
We can ask for all these
things, because God cares for us and understands our needs, and He is a Provider.
As Paul affirmed: “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious
riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 4:19)
However, God is not like the fabled genie in the bottle, who has come to grant our wishes.
Paul was confident God would meet the Philippians’ needs, just as God had met his own
needs… in the course of his service in the Gospel.
Call it, the condition of our confidence: God
will meet our needs, too, so that we may do His will (not our own).
Or, as Andrew Murray put
it, “God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.”
These prayers of the apostle are prayers for God’s people (fellow believers).
While he most
certainly prayed for non-believers to be saved, especially his fellow Jews, these prayers are
aimed at the needs of people in the church.
And this example should be instructive.
Since it takes a Christian to make a Christian—that is, it takes a believer to proclaim effectively
the life-changing message of the Gospel (the Good News message about Jesus)—Paul concentrated on praying for his fellow believers.
If they weren’t healthy, the Gospel ministry would
not be effective.
Just as the first aim of your faith in Christ should be to love your fellow believers (without
which, your claim to love God would be invalid), so also, the first aim of your prayers should be
the spiritual well-being of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Make the Church healthy, and
the world will be blessed.
As to the format of Paul’s prayers, we will see that his requests were simple and straightforward, not lengthy.
What he did express at length were the outcomes for which he aimed—the
answers to needs for which he hoped to have God’s ear.
We must learn to pray with the end in mind.
What changes do we hope to see?
And right here
is where our own understanding of the will of God has great bearing.
What outcome is God
working toward?
If we are not praying for the same result, should He pay attention to us?
Here’s what Apostle John wrote about that:
“We are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him.” (1 John
5:14)
“We will receive from Him whatever we ask because we obey Him and do the things that
please Him.” (1 John 3:22)
Praying from human need does not stimulate or require any faith, not does it impress God,
who is aware of more human need in a day than you or I will be in a lifetime.
Faith comes by
hearing from God what He wants to do.
Then, we can align our requests with His plans, and
pray with confidence.
It is natural to be moved by need or pain or grief.
But be careful!
Recognizing common human
needs is no sign of faith or spirituality.
Every sinner feels such sentiments.
But “without faith, it
is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)
So, need may move you, but pray from faith, not your sense of need.
Now, let’s see how Paul did it…
1. Ephesians 1:17-19
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom
and revelation in your growing knowledge of Him--since the eyes of your heart have been en-
lightened--so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what is the wealth of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of His power toward us
who believe.
I have boldfaced the request portion of Paul’s prayer, so that you may recognize how succinct,
and clear his requests were.
Many of our prayers lose their power as our words wander all
around a topic.
Before we speak our prayers, we need God to give us spiritual wisdom and revelation concerning His will in the matter.
Until we know that, we are just guessing, and there is
no faith in guessing.
Paul’s well-aimed request would have several outcomes, which he also laid out before the
Lord.
These are his “so that” expectations.
Do you know what your requests should accomplish, according to the will of God?
What is
your “so that”?
In this passage Paul asked for spiritual wisdom and revelation in their growing knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ, so that three things might be known by them:
The hope of His calling
The wealth of His glorious inheritance
The incomparable greatness of His power
The call of God to each of us is, first, to come to Him and to be with Him.
That growing relationship is the bedrock of our knowledge and effective service during our lifetime.
The hope of
this calling is His presence, and the resultant assurance that we can do all things (to which He
calls us) as He gives us strength, and that He will never leave us or abandon us in the course of
our journey.
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