WHAT SHOULD I PRAY FOR?
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Opening Prayer
Lord God, as I learn more of you in your Word, encourage me with new reasons to change how I feel, how I think, and how I act. I want to continue growing into the person you created me to be.
Read EPHESIANS 3:14–21
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
A Prayer for the Ephesians
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Footnotes
- Ephesians 3:15 The Greek for family (patria) is derived from the Greek for father (pater).
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How long is your “to do” list for God when you come to him in prayer? Of what does it mostly consist?
Paul knew about hardships and worries and so did the churches he planted. As already noted, Paul suffered beatings, stoning, slander, and arrest for preaching the gospel. The churches he was in relationship with experienced the difficulties of infighting, false accusations from opponents, poverty, sexual failings, and factions developing. This made Paul’s prayer life, documented in the Scriptures, intriguing. Paul had no problem with encouraging the churches to present their requests to God.1 Yet when Paul himself prayed for them, his primary focus was not for their challenges, but for the deepening of their relationship with God.
If there were difficulties between distinct groups in the Ephesian church, Paul would be warranted in spending time in his letter praying for those groups to be united. Instead, he asked the Father to strengthen them with power from the Spirit, to fill them with Jesus’ love and to give them a deep confidence in that love. The ‘to know’ (v. 19) is not simply awareness of a truth, but closer to the way a spouse deeply knows their partner.
When we come to prayer, there is often a lengthy list of areas in our lives where we want to see God act. Paul’s prayer here reminds us that while our God cares for us, provides for us, and listens to our requests, he is also a God who wants us to be filled with a deep knowledge that we are loved. We are loved by a God who is always at work, always seeking our good, and always acting to bring about his purposes. This is a knowledge that eases our worries and enables us to live with peace, even amid difficulties.
Apply
Spend time praying for the quality of your relationship with God.
Closing prayer
Father, I often give you my cares and my needs. Today I ask you to fill me with the knowledge of the depth of love Christ Jesus has for me.
1 Phil 4:6
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