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 additionally in our hearts. As our use of time and cash inform one thing of our priorities, so, too, do our prayers.
After 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 methods to 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 additionally in our hearts.
The idea for Paul’s praying was the Gospel. Chapters 1 and a pair of inform us that a lot:
In him you additionally, if you heard the phrase of reality, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, had 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 could be skilled by them. Paul tied his instruction to the Ephesians with intercession for them. Then, having supplied them with data, he prayed it house. 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 at the very least two ideas for prayer, exhibiting 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 wish; 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. After we learn the Gospels, we sense that Jesus was praying on a regular basis—way over 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 educating 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 planet, 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 excellent 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 easier for a minister to evangelise and research 5 hours, than to wish for his individuals 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 quite 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 additionally in its posture. We discover Paul on his knees earlier than God in prayer, declaring along with his posture what’s in his coronary heart: With out God, he’s totally helpless.
Jewish males usually prayed standing, not kneeling. For this reason each the Jewish Pharisee and the Jewish tax collector in Jesus’ parable are standing, we’re advised, in prayer (Luke 18:11–13). However Paul bows his knees, in all probability conscious of the promise in Isaiah, during 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 excellent 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” might “be strengthened” (v. 16), “crammed 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, benefiting from each alternative, he yearns for the reason for the Gospel to achieve past his jail cell and to the nations.
Prayer Is Non secular
Prayer, nonetheless, is just not solely selfless; it’s additionally religious—which can appear an apparent technique to describe it!
Lots of the issues which might be the main target of up to date 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 had 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 considerations 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 educate this very precept? Speaking with His disciples, who had been involved about their meals and their garments, our Lord stated,
I let you know, 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. Will not be life greater than meals, and the physique greater than clothes? … Search first the dominion of God and his righteousness, and all these items can be added to you. (Matt. 6:25, 33)
In different phrases, prayer’s hub is at all times 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 crucial to a Christian’s vitality.
The posture of our hearts earlier than God is the important thing challenge in prayer.
It’s as if Paul reminds the Ephesians in praying this manner, “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.
Could God’s individuals try 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.
