Reference Scriptures: Ephesians 6:18
In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 18, are words that express a surprising and overwhelming force to the pressing importance of prayer:
- “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”.
When we stop to consider the meaning of these words and notice the context, we are driven to exclaim; “I should pray, pray, and pray! I should pray with all my energy and all my heart, be of more, I should pray!"
Let’s notice every “all”
1. “all our prayer”
2. “all the time”
3. “all supplication in the Spirit”
4. “all perseverance”
5. “all saints” (In essence, the bible refers to saints (Holy ones) those who belong to the universal body of Christ as His Saints).
Also note the strong agglomeration of words:
1. “prayer”
2. “supplication”
3. “perseverance”
In addition lets note the significance expression; “being watchful” or "be vigilant" (alert).
Apostle Paul understood the natural laziness of man, and especially for prayer – Alert in prayer. How seldom we pray for things until obtaining them! How often the church and the individual approach the point where they can receive a blessing in prayer, and then suddenly loose, fall asleep, stop praying!
It is my wish that these words, “being watchful in all prayer” – Could penetrate to the most intimate part of our hearts.
A constant, persistence, vigilant, and victorious prayer is necessary. Why?
1. Because there is a cunning adversary, powerful and tireless, always scheming to make the fall of the son of God, and if this cease in prayer, will fall into the trap of the adversary. “Like a roaring lion.”
2. The second reason for a constant, persistent, vigilant, and victorious prayer, is the prayer, is a divinely way appointed to us to obtain our needs, and the great cause of experiencing deficiency in our lives and our labor is the neglect in prayer . In James 4:2 – “You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.”
Why do I grow slowly in the Christian life? Many asked!
Negligence in prayer - God answer – “because you have not asked”
I often pray or pray everyday – Some of you may say – but still don’t get what you ask?
“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”. –James 4:3
3. There is a more powerful reason in favor of this victorious, vigilant, persistent, and constant prayer: The prayer occupied a very prominent place and was very important in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ while He was in this world. One example – see Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
No other system, philosophy, or religious doctrine, raise man to this supreme idea of filial relationship with God and as a Father who loves, guides, and protects His creation until the revelation of Jesus Christ Throughout the Old Testament we are taught that God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Governor of the universe, the Almighty - Omniscient and Omnipresent. From here and there we see signs of His love and mercy.
However, is Jesus Christ the ultimate and the last revelation of God who teaches us to pray not only addressing Him as the Creator - Sovereign - but lifts us into a filial relationship with Him, teaching us that He is our father. Here is a new idea and transcendent the fatherhood of God related to man. This goes beyond the conception of the relationship between creature and creator. We read in John 1:12 (NIV) – “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”.
Jesus teaches us in Matthew 6:9 "This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’,” Able to invoke God as the Father gives another meaning to life and considerably enhances the label of Christian. Being a Christian means more than bestowing that name. More than a certain cult profess or practice any particular religion.
Being a Christian means, to pray, with certainty to tell the truth: “Our Father who art in heaven.” It means even more: To feel and live in this intimate filial relationship. In Romans 8:16 we read – “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children”. It actually allows dismissing all doubt and uncertainty about the future. Produce the ineffable joy that our soul feels a softer contact with the Father.
Now that we are clear to whom our prayers are directed, Apostle Paul indicates us that for our prayer to be effective we must put the full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17). Here, Paul tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might (v10).
Basically, putting on the armor of God, consists of turning our thoughts to God (Our Heavenly Father) and the truths of our position before Him: He has given us His truth and we are the righteousness of Christ. If we jump into prayer without first turning our thoughts to these truths, we become vulnerable to Satan’s attacks Whenever we turn to God in prayer, Satan becomes alerted to do anything possible to keep us from praying.
Therefore, we must be watchful as Apostle Paul states.
When our thoughts wander off from the purpose of our prayer, Satan begins to attack us by poisoning our minds with doubts, making us feel whether our prayers will be heard and answer, thus making us hurry through the prayer to finish or get distracted by others things. In Matthew 26:41- Jesus said to His sleepy, distracted disciples– “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”.
For a prayer to be effective, it must be done in the Spirit – verse 18- “And pray in the Spirit”. Jesus told that Samaritan woman in John 4:24 – “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth”. Just as Ephesians 6:18 – Here Jesus is saying that worship is done in spirit and truth.
An effective prayer is the result of being watchful and alert while praying. Have any of you fallen asleep in prayer? Some of you have done so. Note that we are to stay on the alert "for all the saints”. We are to be guarding others. We have a joint responsibility as the body of Christ to guard each other; Paul made it very clear in his letter to the Ephesians.
A prayer also requires perseverance. Paul says, -"Be on the alert with all perseverance”. In Hebrews 12:1 – Apostle Paul said – “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”. In Romans 12:12 he said – “rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer”.
Many asked, how does God work through prayer? We may never understand or know the answer. However, it is fundamentally no different from the way God works through any of our actions. God works through prayer in the same exact way. Our Father in Heaven waits the prayers / petitions of His children. All effective prayers must include the Trinity of God - (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) We pray with the Holy Spirit, and we need to abide in Jesus (our mediator) and in the Word for our prayer to be effective.
In John 15:7- Jesus said – “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”.
KEY WORDS “IF YOU” Are you abiding in Jesus and in God's Words? “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit”-
Jesus encourage us to pray- See Mathew 7:7-8 - "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be openned to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened".
Would you pray now?
May God Bless You!
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