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ReVision

Made Strong through Prayer

Our strength comes together in prayer.

The Christian’s Strength (7)

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3.14-19

A prayer for all believers
We do not want to overlook one very important aspect of the text we have been considering: Paul believed that the strength of the Christian is aided by and realized through prayer.

Our text is a prayer that, we can believe, Paul regularly prayed for the Church in Ephesus. He believed that his prayers for the members of that community would be instrumental in helping them to grow strong in the power of God’s Spirit. So he got down on his knees and pled with the Father of all peoples that He might do in and for the Ephesians what He commands of all His children, that they should be strong.

What would happen if every Christian took up this prayer for every believer he knows, as well as for the leaders of the Christian movement worldwide? Czeslaw Milosz has described prayer as a bridge to the “shores of the great reversal.” In prayer we transcend the trials and disappointments of our day and enter the eternal presence of Him Who is filling all things with Himself. Do we believe that God can use our prayers to bring about a sudden reversal in the sad trends of recent years, in which the faith of Christ seems to be declining in the Western world, and in America as well, and the voices of secularism, relativism, and mere sensuality are on the rise?

Begin with yourself
Perhaps we should begin by praying this prayer for ourselves. Psalm 138.3 reads:

In the day when I cried out, You answered me,
Andmade me bold withstrength in my soul.

Since we know God wants us to be strong – we know that such strength comes from His Spirit, and we understand what it looks like as we grow strong – does it not make sense to turn to God, calling out to Him in prayer to enable us to realize the charge He has laid upon us?

Indeed, it does.

Three conditions
But whether believers will take up this prayer depends on three things. First, do we believe that God commands us to be strong in the inner person, as we have described? Is this command for Christians to be clothed with the strength of Christlikeness true and valid for every believer? Do we accept this as a charge from God, a mandate each of us must pursue as of the highest priority?

Believing is more than agreeing, or nodding approvingly at the text. Believing is receiving, laying hold on, making plans for, and launching out each day into the strength that comes from God’s Spirit, so that we live the life of Christ unto the glory of God in our Personal Mission Field. Do we believe God commands us to be strong like this?

Second, do we believe that prayer is a vehicle powerful to help us fulfill what God commands?

Prayer is work, or, as medieval monks would say, orare est laborare. If we’re not working at prayer – asking, seeking, knocking, not growing weary, praying without ceasing, taking no rest and giving God no rest – not taking prayer seriously, then we can hardly expect God to take our prayers any more seriously than we do.

And, third, is our own prayer life such as to make room for this kind of prayer, both for ourselves and for the other members of the Body of Christ? Dare we pray the apostle’s own words for ourselves and our fellow believers? And dare we take the bold, ambitious, visionary prayers of the psalms as our own prayers, as we seek the Lord for strength to live Jesus before the watching world?

The Apostle James assures us that the prayer of a righteous man or woman can be very powerful as it works according to the purpose of God (Jms. 5.16). Do we believe this? Are we persuaded that all that stands between us and greater strength to serve Christ, to proclaim His Kingdom and make His grace and truth known, is prayer for ourselves and one another, according to the pattern outlined by Paul?

If we are, then we will pray. And if we pray, then God will work, just as Paul believed, to fulfill His charge in us, and to make us strong in Him, so that the world sees and hears Jesus with a power and persuasiveness we have not witnessed in our lifetime.

For reflection
1.  How do you plan to incorporate Paul’s prayer into your own prayer life?

2.  Why do you think many Christians have such a low regard for prayer? Why is prayer such hard work?

3.  Make a plan to pray daily for the people in your Personal Mission Field, using Paul’s prayer and prayers from the Psalms and elsewhere. Begin praying these every day.

Next steps – Transformation: Begin to let your prayers be guided by God’s Word. Let Him guide you to more consistent, visionary, and powerful praying. How would you expect this to help you grow in the strength of the Lord?

T. M. Moore

Christians are the bringers of joy, the joy of Christ and His Kingdom. Our booklet, Joy to Your World!, can help you bring the fullness of God to your Personal Mission Field. Order your copy by clicking here.

For a free PDF of this week's study, click here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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