As we saw on Sunday, Nov 5, in Ephesians 3:14-21 Paul prays that out of God’s glorious riches the Father would strengthen His people with power through His Spirit in their inner being, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. This prayer is that Christ would settle more and more in our lives and that He would bear the fruit of His work of repentance and growth in knowledge & obedience to Him. He also prayed that as we are being rooted and established in love we would have power, together with all the Saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. This prayer is for us to grow in knowledge of Christ’s love for us as His body, understanding His love for us as displayed on the cross and beyond to be filled with the fullness of God. Those two prayers are deeply spiritual prayers that encourage our growing union with Christ and God’s people. Do pray these often for yourself and for the Saints.

In addition to this reminder, I wanted to further press the encouragement to seek other prayers from the scriptures to pray for ourselves and one another. What could be more encouraging than having God’s word to pray? When words can’t be found, when we need to pray deeper than we in our weakness can pray, we find that God’s word is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). In other words, it is able to give us language beyond mere human sentimentality. It gives us spiritual concepts that are God’s words and thoughts. So, I want to encourage you, as you read God’s word with the Holy Spirits enabling, to pull out sections to pray for yourself and the Saints.

Such texts are everywhere. For example, you may use the Lord’s prayer to get your focus on God daily. You may use the Psalms to guide you as you pray. For help with this I suggest Praying the Bible by Whitney which is a practical book on this topic. Also consider Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation by Carson which delves into the prayers of Paul. Both are good tools to help us grow in our praying for ourselves and the Saints.

Enjoy the treasures you find to pray!!