How Should We Pray?
Prayer can be a challenging undertaking. It’s hard to set aside the time, focus our minds, and still our hearts. It’s hard to know how to pray. We can always pray for urgent needs related to health or finances. But apart from those, what should be our regular priorities in prayer – for ourselves and for one another? It’s so easy to descend into bland generalities when we pray (e.g. “bless” so and so). On one level, this is perfectly fine. It’s not wrong. But this can feel shallow. Where can we learn about prayer as God intended it? The Bible actually gives us more help than we realize – not least through the prayers of the Apostle Paul.
In Ephesians 1, Paul is praying not for a specific crisis, but simply for the people of God as they go about normal life. He begins with thanksgiving as he prays: “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers…” (vv. 15-16). He has heard of the faith of the Ephesians and their love for their fellow believers, and so he thanks God, knowing that such marks are evidence of the Spirit’s work in their hearts. Paul teaches us to begin our prayers by thanking God for the faith or love or Christian character that we see in a person’s life. A sample prayer could sound like this: “Thank you, Father, for your Spirit’s work in this person’s life.”
Next, Paul moves on to ask for something very significant—namely, that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.” (v. 17). Here is the weighty thing on Paul’s heart – here is the subject of his incessant prayer – that God would give to the Ephesians the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Of course, it’s not that the Ephesians don’t already have the Spirit (they do), but Paul wants them to experience the Spirit’s particular work of illumination. He prays that the Spirit would give them insight into the revealed word of God. He prays that God would give them greater wisdom and revelation precisely so that they may know better the God whom they have trusted and to whom they belong.
We may imagine that our biggest need is for certain circumstances in our lives to change – for difficulties to be taken away. That’s what seems pressing. And no doubt the Ephesians had big needs in their lives – problems to address and crises to manage. But notice the thrust of Paul’s prayer: he asks that the Ephesians would know God better. And he focuses on three aspects of God: “what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (vv. 18-19) Of course, it takes the eyes of faith to see these things—the Ephesians (like us) were naturally blind to them and easily lost sight of them. So Paul prays that they might have “the eyes of your hearts enlightened” (v. 18) by God’s Spirit.
This week, as you pray for other believers, consider thanking God first for His active work in their lives. Then, ask God to reveal Himself in increasing measure—His living hope, His riches, and His power—as He enlightens their hearts and they grow in wisdom and knowledge of Him.