Devotional Thoughts for Week of April 5, 2020 - How Then Shall We Pray?
I find it remarkable that for more than a year now, God has been calling His people to a much deeper prayer life. This is yet another reminder of how God is in the details. One year ago we would not have been prepared to pray through this pandemic. As our prayer lives have grown in frequency, in depth, and in urgency, we have grown in our knowledge and love for God.
As always, Scripture is a valuable instructor in how to please God. In many of Paul’s letters to churches, he mentioned what He was praying for that congregation. I wonder what impact it would have on our church and families and personal lives if we prayed for this kind of spiritual blessing and anointing. Notice what He asked God to do in the lives of believers.
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength” (Ephesians 1:17-19).
“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner beings so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may 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 you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19).
“And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11).
“ . . . we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light” (Colossians 1:9b-12).
Paul prays these wonderful things for believers:
Lynn
P.S. I am planning to print out this bullet list on cardstock to keep in my Bible and remind me what to pray. If you would like a copy, I would be glad to share.
I find it remarkable that for more than a year now, God has been calling His people to a much deeper prayer life. This is yet another reminder of how God is in the details. One year ago we would not have been prepared to pray through this pandemic. As our prayer lives have grown in frequency, in depth, and in urgency, we have grown in our knowledge and love for God.
As always, Scripture is a valuable instructor in how to please God. In many of Paul’s letters to churches, he mentioned what He was praying for that congregation. I wonder what impact it would have on our church and families and personal lives if we prayed for this kind of spiritual blessing and anointing. Notice what He asked God to do in the lives of believers.
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength” (Ephesians 1:17-19).
“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner beings so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may 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 you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19).
“And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11).
“ . . . we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light” (Colossians 1:9b-12).
Paul prays these wonderful things for believers:
- The Spirit of wisdom and revelation so they can know God better
- Hearts enlightened to know and grasp this hope, this glorious inheritance and also this incomparably great power that is working for us
- Strengthened with power by the Holy Spirit, Christ dwelling in our hearts
- Rooted and established in love
- Enabled and empowered to grasp something far too big for us, to know something that is un-knowable in our humanness . . . namely the immensity of God’s love
- Filled to all the measure of the fullness of God
- Knowledge and depth of insight to discern what is best
- Pure and blameless lives, lives worthy of our God and pleasing to Him
- Filled with the fruit of righteousness that brings God glory, through Jesus
- Filled with the knowledge of His will, with spiritual wisdom and understanding
- Growing to know Him more deeply
- Endurance and patience resulting from His power that strengthens His people
- Overflowing with joy and thankfulness
Lynn
P.S. I am planning to print out this bullet list on cardstock to keep in my Bible and remind me what to pray. If you would like a copy, I would be glad to share.