EPHESIANS 1
15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
TRUE PURPOSE DRIVEN PRAYER
How do we pray for each other?
What is our motivation for praying for your fellow believers.
Paul has stated what we have in Christ, he has shown us that we have everything IN Christ.
When we see believers trusting in and serving Christ, then we should pray for them.
How do we pray for people:
We pray profitably for them, Paul says for this reason.
For what reason you say, well to gain a thorough knowledge of all he has outlined in verses 3-14, because if we truly grasped what we have in Christ and who we are in Christ, then we would have true Christian assurance and security, most of the problems in our Christian lives, lie in a lack of security and we have no knowledge of who we are in Christ.
He prayed precisely for them, look at the rest of the prayer, he is praying for specific things for the believers, he is praying for wisdom, hope, knowledge of God and power. He is not praying for worldly things, but for things relating to the kingdom of God.
We pray for them personally.
Note he talks of your faith, he prays for each of the believers in Ephesus. As we read further in this prayer, we see how personal this prayer is. When we pray every day, we pray for individual believers, sure we pray for the church, but we pray for individual believers. Paul had spent years in Ephesus, he knew many of these believers in person, many in churches today, only know those in their little cliques.
We pray for them passionately
As soon as Paul heard about these believers, he started to pray.
As you read the prayer, can you hear the passion, he is praying with. Do you pray for your fellow believers with passion?. Is it just bless X or Y, or do you pray with passion for them?
He prays persistently, he does not cease to give thanks for these believers. His prayers were ongoing and constant for the believers, he did not pray once in a while for these believers, he brought them before the throne of grace on most days.
He prays with a positive result in mind, look ahead to the prayer, what is the result, that they would know the power of God manifested in their lives. Prayer is power and the result of you praying into believers lives is that they are infused with the very power of God.
As you pray for your fellow believers, you need to pray in these five ways:
Profitably
Personally
Passionately
Precisely
Persistently
If we pray like this, our prayers, will have a positive result, that the very power of God would be unleashed in the people and churches you pray for.
God bless you
KK