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Paul’s Passion to Pray
As Paul begins his prayer for the saints, he says “for this cause.”
The word “cause” means, “reason, or from the pleasure of.”
Paul is speaking of the revelation he has just shared with the church.
He is referring to the great truths revealed all the way from Eph. 1:1 to 3:13.
That great, doctrinal passage is filled with astounding truth.
• From the fact that
God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ, 1:3
, to the truth that
He has made us fellow heirs along with the Jews in the body of Christ, the church, 3:6.
In between those verses are the facts that
God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, 1:4.
• He reached out to us when we were dead in trespasses and sins, 2:1.
• He loved us in spite of our depravity and our wickedness, 2:2–4.
• He saved us by His grace, and made us His children, 2:5–10.
• He reached out to us, who separated from Him by our sins, 2:12–17.
• He saved us and He adopted us into His family, and made us a part of the body of Christ.
That is reason enough to praise Him for all eternity!
All I can say is, “Hallelujah!
Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
When we stop to consider everything the Lord has done for us to save us and to change our lives, it should motivate us to go to Him in prayer.
If God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins, then saved us by His grace and adopted us into His family, we should have a desire to spend time with a God like that.
Our love for the Lord ought to manifest itself in a passionate desire to come into the presence of the Lord to spend time with Him in prayer.
Our passion for Him should drive us to Him.
Paul’s Posture of Prayer
Why bow?
1.
It is a sign of submission to One Who is being far greater than we are.
When we bow before the Lord we are acknowledging His glory, His power and His authority over our lives.
We bow in prayer before HIm because we understand that we are in the presence of One Who is far higher in rank, dignity, glory and authority that we are.
Bowing before the Lord in prayer is a sign of humility and submission before the Lord.
2. It is a sign of intense passion and emotion.
In the passages I shared a moment ago, we can see the emotion and the passion that drove Paul to pray.
In other words, sometimes you are so overwhelmed by the circumstances and needs of life that kneeling becomes the natural posture one adopts before the Lord.
Having said all that let me say this.
God is not concerned about the posture of your body.
I do not think the Lord cares whether you pray kneeling, sitting, standing, lying down, walking, or whatever.
God is more concerned about the posture of the heart.
Paul’s Purpose for Prayer
As Paul begins to pray he tells us that his purpose in this prayer is both to glorify the Father and to edify the church.
Paul takes a moment at the beginning of His prayer to remind us again of just who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says that he bows his knees before “the Father.”
The word translated “Father” is the word “Pater.”
It speaks of “the generator, or the male ancestor of a family line.”
This word pictures God as the One Who started a new “family” through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
The word “family” translates the word “patria,” which means, “all those who in a given people lay claim to a common origin; those who share a common lineage or ancestry.”
This passage reminds us that all those who are in Jesus Christ are in the same family and we share a common Father.
As Paul prayed for the Ephesians believers, he made some very specific requests on their behalf.
It is interesting to note what he did not ask for when he prayed.
He did not pray for anything physical, material or financial.
He did not pray for the healing of their sick.
He did not pray that they would be delivered from persecution.
He did not pray about the economy in Asia Minor.
Paul did not occupy his prayer with so many of the things that seem to mark our own prayer lives.
We tend to be selfish when we pray.
Many of the things we pray about will not be issues in a year, or a month, or a week, or even a day.
On the other hand, spiritual maters are eternal in nature.
We can become so consumed with the issues that occupy our minds today, that we fail to even consider the matters of eternity.
When Paul prayed for the Ephesians, his focus is entirely spiritual.
I want to draw our attention to the heart of Paul’s prayer in these verses today.
Spiritual Power
The word “might” comes from the Greek word that gives us our English words “dynamite and dynamo.”
It refers to “inherent power, or the power which resides within something by nature.”
This does not mean that we possess spiritual power in and of ourselves.
It does mean that because we are in a relationship with the Lord, we have been empowered.
Paul prays that this power might be revealed in the “inner man.”
He is referring to the soul, or the person who inhabits these bodies.
He is speaking about the very source of all the problems we have in our lives.
The soul is the center of our will, our emotions, our thought process, and our motives.
Acts 1:8 (KJV 1900)
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Paul prays that their spiritual power may be, “according to the riches of His glory.”
He is praying that God will bless them “according” to His spiritual wealth.
That is an amazing request!
Paul is praying that God will give believers spiritual power that flows from the vast, limitless resources of God Himself.
Those very resources became ours when we trusted Christ as Savior.
The phrase “the riches of His glory” speaks of those spiritual attributes and abilities that belong to God because of Who He is.
When He moved into your heart, He brought with Him the fullness of His presence and His power.
Paul’s prayer is that the Ephesians would be able to experience the full benefit of their relationship with the Lord.
Sadly, most believers live like spiritual paupers when they are in fact the possessors of limitless spiritual wealth.
What does it for the “inner man” to be empowered by God?
It means that our spirits come under the complete control of the Holy Spirit.
It means that we yield to His control, His will, His power, for His glory.
When that happens, the “inner man” grows stronger and is more able to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
It is only when we yield to the Spirit and let Him control the inner man that we succeed in living to the glory of God.
Paul prays for their spiritual power.
If there is one thing every believer I know needs today, it is spiritual power.
That is a prayer we can pray for all our brothers and sisters in Christ.
May the Lord ever help us to have the spiritual well-being of our fellow believers on our hearts and in our prayers.
Paul now turns from praying for their spiritual power to praying for their spiritual passion.
His prayer is for these believers to be filled with the love of God that manifests itself in love for God and for others.
Spiritual Passion
He prayed that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.”
He is not praying that they would be saved; they already were.
When a sinner is saved, the Lord takes up residence in the new believer’s heart.
The word “dwell” means “to settle down; to be at home.”
It is the idea of someone being “comfortable in a home.”
The idea here is that Christ will not be comfortable in the house of our hearts until our hearts are controlled by the Spirit of God.
He lives in our hearts from the moment we trust Him as Savior, but He will not be “at home” there until the Spirit of God controls that heart.
This verse is not about salvation, but it is about sanctification.
The Lord dwells in our hearts by faith, but He is not at home in our hearts until we are under the control of the Spirit.
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