Sometime back, I stopped always asking God for only what I want and started asking Him for what He wants.
I don’t recall just when that was, and often I slip up in praying that way, so I made a list of things I found in Scripture. I refer to them whenever it seems like my prayers focus more on me than on Him.
Maybe you’ll find it helpful, too.
Next to the Psalms, Ephesians has to be my favorite “prayer manual” book in the Bible. It’s really a letter, written by Paul the apostle to the church in the city of Ephesus. He mentions several times he is praying for them, and lists what he is praying.
What God Wants
These prayers of Paul reveal to us exactly what it is the Lord wants for His church.
The list I made is not comprehensive of everything He wants, but I list 22 of them just in this one six chapter book. I think God had Paul put them in there so we can use these Scriptures today as a guide for praying His will for us. He did that because He wants us to ask, and He wants to answer!
These prayers are God-focused prayers. If we admit it, many of our prayers are self-focused, that is, we ask for things we want. These prayers turn that inside out. They ask the things God wants instead.
These prayers are for the Church. They are for each one of us in Christ, and for all those who are children of God. They are for me, and for you; for your local fellowship, and the one down the street. This is praying from the word of God for the people of God.
These prayers deal with internal disposition not external condition. Praying these, gets our focus off our circumstances and onto our inner man. Praying these will impact our heart, they will change how we think and feel about the Body of Christ. When we pray these, we begin to want what Jesus wants.
Ask of Him
He ever listens for the cries of His children.
In the prayer closet. When you pray, says our Savior. So take these prayers in your notebook or journal with you in times of prayer so you can include them in your prayers. It is not the only thing to pray, certainly, but use this to pray for all the saints.
ASK-ask seek knock. Jesus also says we are to ask, seek and knock. In this way, it will be given, we will find, the door will be opened. If we don’t ask, we don’t get.
The Father gives to those who ask. How much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to those who—what? That’s right, ask Him!
We Can Expect Answers
When we ask for temporal wants, the answers may not come as we’d wish. But when we pray according to His will, we can look fore a surer result.
He plans on answering them. We believe God had these prayers recorded for our use then and now. He has been answering them and continues even today!
Do not doubt, believe you have received. Jesus assures us when we ask, believe and we will receive. Our asking must be in line with His will, these prayers are His will, so we can believe He will answer.
Trust and wait. This is the hard part! We live in an instant gratification world, but perhaps the way our Lord responds to these requests take more time than we expect, or answered in ways we do not expect. Our job is to trust Him and wait for Him.
What Paul Prays For
He tells the church he was constantly giving thanks for them and mentioning them in his prayers. He went before the Father, bowing his knees, and asking these things be given to his readers:
* grace, peace
* wisdom, insights, revelation, knowledge
* hope, riches, power
* strength, love, fullness
* thankfulness
* strong, armed
* truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, words
* to pray for saints, boldness
The List
Attached here is a shortened list of Paul’s Prayer Requests
A full list is being prepared for a mini-book publication as a resource (more on that later) but for now you can access this PDF and save or print it for use.
As a way to say our Thanks, a more detailed list will be sent to newsletter subscribers who support Epaphras Prays financially. That will soon
be available automatically for you if you choose to do so as well.
Or, look for the mini-book available soon.
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Until next time, grace and peace…
