In Ephesians 1:15-16 as part of Paul’s first of two prayers he gives us four fascinating aspects of this prayer that help us in our prayer life:
• Paul had just finished speaking to them about all that God has done on their behalf where they were reintroduced to the benefits of God’s actions towards that when he now says through this prayer, “I’ve just talked to you about the Lord and now I’m going to talk to the Lord about you!” When you think about this it points out the reality that while it is a great thing to communicate God’s truths concerning the person and work of God to others, I think there is still another very important thing that remains and that is to communication with God about what we have just spoken to others about!
• Second notice “who” Paul prayed for. When we think of our prayer life as it relates to others you will notice something quite remarkable about this prayer of Paul’s for the believers in Ephesus. We are most likely to commit to praying for each other when times are tough which isn’t a wrong thing, but look at Paul’s words here where he writes, “after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:” Paul’s prayer for these believers in Ephesus was motivated by how WELL they were doing not how POORLY they were doing! This was a preventive prayer not a need-basedprayer. I personally think we would have far fewer needs if most of our prayer time was spent preventing us from our needs rather than praying to get us out of our needs!
• 16 Next notice “when” Paul prayed for them as he writes that his prayers for them, do not cease! These words in Greek are used to describe a tickle in the throat, which is involuntary and can’t be stopped. Paul was constantly thanking the Lord and speaking to Him concerning these believers. We are so conditioned to think of prayeras a specific time instead of all the time. A good friend of mine used to have a line he would throw out to get folks to think of prayer as much more than an emergency brake by always responding to the words let’s pray with the phrase Has it come to this?
• Finally, the content of the prayer itself amazes me as it relates to my own prayer life. Have you ever lost something and torn the house apart trying to look for it? I think that resembles a lot of our prayer lives. For the most part, we pray for the things we simply have misplaced which are already ours in Christ. Paul’s prayer was for what they already had in Christ so that they would NOT misplace it. In light of the history of the Church in Ephesus, seeing that according to Revelation 2:4 they left their first love it was the right thing to be praying for. Think of how different our lives would be if we simply appropriated what is already ours in Christ!