Paul’s prayer – that they may Know
I got to lead prayer meeting last week, so I decided to do a little review of the prayers of Paul. I’ve been over this ground before, but I was just listening to a sermon on Romans 1 and thought it would be interesting to review some of the common themes in Paul’s prayers for the churches he wrote to.
So we took a look at three passages – Philippians 1:9-11, Colossians 1:9-12, and 2Thessalonians 1:11-12.
You can check them out if you want, but some common things he prayed for were purity, fruit (fruit of justice, good works), patience, joy, strength, love, and faith.
But interestingly enough one very strong theme was knowledge. Discernment. Knowing what is good and what isn’t. Knowing what God’s will is.
So if you really want to have fun, after looking at those passages, and seeing what Paul says about knowledge, head over to Ephesians 1. Start at verse 15 and go from there.
You’ll notice Paul starts talking about knowledge again – "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know …"
That you may know what?
Well, then Paul launches into this magnificent discussion of all the wonderful things God has done for us. He keeps going on and on and on… right into chapter 2, in fact! Go right to the end of chapter 2. Amazing! These are the things that Paul prayed that the people would know. And remember we’re talking about wisdom and discernment – not just being aware, but experiencing and living the incredible power of God in their lives.
Are you living it? Are you praying that your church will know these things, and will make these things a reality in their lives?
7 June 2009 @ 12:04 am
Seems like Paul’s prayers for other believers were more about their spiritual condition whereas most of the churches I’ve been a part of seem to major on the physical and social. Not that the latter are wrong. But it seems to me that we need a lot more emphasis on the spiritual.
I suppose it may be partly habit, but could it be that our minds tend to dwell more on “the cares, riches, and pleasures of life?” These are mentioned in Lk.8:14 in the parable of the sower. Jesus explained that the seed falling among thorns represented the Word of God being heard by those who were “choked” (NKJ) with these things and, therefore “bring no fruit to maturity.” As I type this I’m convinced that yes, most of us do dwell more on these than on the spiritual aspects of our lives.
Now my question is, “What will I do with this fact?” Hmmm!
16 June 2009 @ 9:31 pm
It would be interesting to do a survey of some of the prayer topics in the New Testament (or the whole Bible). I was thinking that, for example, health is actually a major theme, even though it wasn’t a major theme in these particular prayers of Paul’s (maybe because he was praying for churches, not individuals).
We certainly do overemphasize the physical – to the point where we don’t know how to pray for anything else. But I think there are good legitimate prayers for the physical as well.