Paul’s letter to the Ephesians begins with a discussion of the blessings of the believer, then moves to the responsibilities of the believer, and finally the warfare of the believer. We must keep each of these in mind as we live our lives.
He opens the warfare section with the Armor of God, and then moves on to a prayer in this section. The way he puts it implies that the way that we put on the armor itself is by the exercise of prayer. John Calvin calls prayer “the ongoing exercise of faith.”
Often prayer is the missing component of our lives with Christ. Many of us are more comfortable with the academic or intellectual aspects of faith, but we aren’t instructed to be academics or intellectuals. We are instructed to pray.
We see prayer from the earliest interactions of God with his people – Job prayed he his (awful) friends, Abraham is in constant conversation with God, Moses prayed constantly for the people he led, Hannah prayed fervently and was blessed with a son, David put his heartfelt prayers to music, Hezekiah prayed for deliverance from the Assyrians and was granted it, Daniel prayed constantly, overtly and famously despite threats of death, while Nehemiah prayed ahead of his request to the king of Persia.
In the New Testament, Christ himself is constantly in prayer, gives us our model for prayer in the Lord’s prayer, was transfigured during a time of prayer, and kicked over tables in his zeal to see the temple as a house of prayer. When church begins, they are constantly coming together in prayer, both on an ongoing basis and in response to internal and external crises. The apostles themselves, when confronted with the material needs within the church, saw that they needed to bring on helpers to deal with the issue, because they themselves needed to be devoted, but only to teaching, but also to prayer.
On and on it goes on scripture. Earlier in this book, Paul discusses exactly how he prays for the Ephesians, providing us a model for praying for our fellow believers, something he is constantly encouraging the churches to do “without ceasing”.
The one way we are instructed here to put on the Armor of God is a prime way Satan attacks us – “praying at all times.” That does not come as easily to us as simply sitting and learning.
Paul uses the term “all” three times in verse 18. We pray rather naturally when we have needs or crises, but we are also told to pray when things are going well. At all times – and with all perseverance, keeping alert. It is easy to nod off during prayer, especially if we wait to pray until the end of the day!
We battle from the top down, not the bottom up. Sometimes Christians are accused of being “so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good,” but in reality we are rarely all that heavenly minded at all. You can’t really overdo prayer.
Here are a few things we should be praying for:
- For Christ to be first in our church
- For God’s word to change our lives
- Renewal, love and unity
- God’s wisdom for our leaders
- Our next pastor and his family
- Strength and joy for all who serve
- Our witness, personally and corporately.
– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, September 22, 2019