to learn from the scripture something about prayer. We have worked our way through the Lord’s Prayer. We have looked at the parallel account in Luke chapter 11 where we learn of God as our Father and the encouragement then to come to Him in prayer because He’s our Father who loves to do us good. And now what I plan to do is work our way through at least some of the Apostle Paul’s prayers that we find in his epistles. We’ll begin here with Ephesians chapter 1. I’ll read beginning with verse 15.
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Well, look, first of all, this evening on just a couple of aspects of this prayer and then we’ll finish it up, I think, next time. We have here in these verses that I’ve read, Paul gives us a summary of the prayer that he offered on behalf of the Ephesian believers. And so in that sense then it becomes a model of prayer for us when we learn how to pray; and one of the things we’re looking for in this series of studies is what to pray for, what should be the topics on our agenda when we go to God in prayer, and so on.
Paul Prays With Thanksgiving
The first thing we see here is that Paul prays with thanksgiving. He prays with thanksgiving. Verse 16: “I do not cease to give thanks for you.” Now what prompts him to pray with thanksgiving we find in verse 15, the verse before it: “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you.” So what prompts him to pray is that he has seen what God has done in them “for this reason.”
A couple of things here. We have a “for this reason,” and then we have a “because.” “For this reason”—that points us backward to verses 3 through 14. And most of you are familiar with that passage. In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul gives us this high overview of the work of God for us in saving us: the work of God from the standpoint of God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit; all that He does for us from each member of the Trinity; what He has done for us in the past in choosing us; what He’s done for us through Christ in His redemptive work in forgiving us of our sins; and then the work of the Spirit in the present time preserving us into the day of redemption.
All of this is a sweeping overview of what God has done for us, and if you could sort of summarize it all, what Paul is doing in those verses is praising God for His sovereign work of redemption in the lives of His people. He chooses, He predestines, Christ comes, He redeems them by His blood, and by the Spirit they’re sealed into the day of redemption. This is the work of God on behalf of His people. And then now in verse 15, “for this reason”—that’s verses 3 to 14—God’s sovereign grace in saving us.
And now he makes it more personal: “because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints.” In other words, then, his recognition of God’s sovereign grace in the life of these Ephesian believers prompts him to pray, first of all, with thanksgiving. What is interesting here—I don’t know how you can walk away from this and not be a reformed believer—what’s interesting here is that he gives thanks to God for their faith and their love.
They believe and are saved, they love one another, and Paul thanks God for it. In other words, verses 3 to 14, this is what God does to save His people, broad overview. And now Paul looks at the experience of the people in Ephesus, and he says, “That’s what’s happened with them. Here they are believing. Well, that’s God at work, just like He said He would do.” And so for this reason, I give thanks to God for you. We’re reminded in all of that then of what we have seen many times here, and that is that saving faith is a gift of God. God gives it, and so when they believed, Paul gave thanks to God for it.
It’s like in Matthew chapter 16. “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus says to Peter. “Well, you’re the Christ, the son of the living God.” Jesus doesn’t say, “Congratulations, you’ve come up with it. You’ve thought that through well, and you figured that out.” What Jesus says is, “Flesh and blood hasn’t revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven.” We find the same thing in Philippians chapter 1, where Paul says, “It has been granted to you by God to believe.” We find that kind of thing often in the scriptures. We can’t say Jesus is Lord apart from the Spirit of God working.
Paul recognizes all of that. He sees that from verses 3 to 14, sees the experience of the believers in Ephesus, and he says, “Thank God for what He has done in these people.” They believe and are saved. They love one another. That is evidence that God has been at work and God is to be thanked and praised for it. The distinguishing mark of believers is that they love one another; they love the other children of God. It’s the fruit of the Spirit: love. And he sees it there, and wherever, he says, wherever you see genuine saving faith, and wherever you see love, God is to be thanked. He’s deserving of praise for it.
Paul Gives Petition As Well
But then we find that Paul does not stop with thanksgiving. That’s the first part of the model of his prayer: praying for one another with thanksgiving. But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to give petition as well.
If you look at verse 17, it begins with the “that.” All right, I’m praying “that.” First of all, he prayed with thanksgiving, but now there’s a petition, and the petition is “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you,” and so on.
So recognizing sovereign grace at work in the lives of these people, Paul, first of all, gives thanks for it. And now he begins to make requests because he has seen this. And the reasoning is something like this: If God can give them faith, and God can bring them savingly to faith in Christ, and if God can so move in their hearts to love one another, well then I’m gonna ask God to give them more of that. And more of that kind of thing. So from thanksgiving now to petition.
And what he asks for is that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Now what he’s after here you can see is at the end of what I just read in verse 17: “the knowledge of Him,” the knowledge of God. That’s what he’s after. He wants them to know God—not just about God, but to have some personal experiential knowledge of God themselves. A deeper recognition of His greatness, a deeper recognition of His glory, a greater appreciation for what He is and what He has done for them and all of that.
And so to that end, so that they may know God—that’s what he’s after—he prays that God will give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation. Again, the knowledge of God is given; it’s not acquired. He asks God who has given them faith, He’s put it in their hearts to love one another, now he prays further: give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they may know You and may know You better. Just as for faith and love, we are dependent upon God’s grace at work in us, so for this deeper knowledge of God, experience with God, he prays that God would be at work in them.
There are plenty of people who read the Bible who are not believers. Plenty of people who read the Bible and don’t seem to move forward. Paul prays that God would remedy that, that God would work in them so that they would have this spirit of wisdom and revelation, having their eyes enlightened so that they come to know God.
You’re familiar with passages like 1 Corinthians 2: “The natural man doesn’t receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.” He doesn’t get it. You can reason with him about the gospel and they don’t get it. Paul’s assuming all of that here. Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians 4: Satan has blinded their minds that they don’t believe. They don’t see in Jesus what He is. They don’t see the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Paul then prays that God would open the eyes of these Ephesians so that they would see it. Now what’s interesting here is that Paul is writing to believers, about believers. These are people who already know God. These people are people who have already seen something of the glory of God and appreciate it to some degree. So what we have to conclude then is what he’s praying for is an increased acquaintance with God—an increased acquaintance and appreciation for who God is. That God would reveal Himself to them in increasing ways that they see.
So here then is how we can pray for one another. I’ve said it before, I’m not saying that we can’t pray for the medical list. But what I am saying, what ought to be in our minds is the kind… follow the model of the apostle and see what is important to him. And what we find is that he prays in keeping with the purposes of God for these people.
He looks at them and he sees them believing and loving one another and thank God for that. And then he turns to the very next breath and says, “God, give them more of it. Give them a spirit of revelation of the knowledge of You so that increasingly they become acquainted with You.” So that the same God who opened their hearts in the first place, gave them faith and love, will give them a deeper understanding and appreciation of Himself.
That’s about as far as we’ll go this evening. Next time we’ll look at the specifics in verses 18 and following: “that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you,” “you may know what is the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints,” “that you might know what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.” We’ll look at that next time.
But note that Paul is praying in direct keeping with God’s purposes for these people. As outlined in verses 3 to 14 earlier, that God does this marvelous work of grace in the hearts and the lives and experience of His people. Paul gives thanks for it and asks God then, “Give us more of the same.” So keep this in mind as you pray.
We recognize, all of us, that we should pray for one another. How should we pray for one another? What should we be asking? Here’s a great place to start. Thank God for the believers that you see, that God has given that faith, and thank God that He’s put it in their hearts to love one another. And then you can move from there to ask for more of the same. All right.