There’s a recurring theme in Paul’s letters: prayer for other believers. In the beginning of most of his letters there is thanksgiving and prayer. It’s interesting to note what draws him to prayer and what he prays for. In Ephesians 1:15-16 Paul writes, “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers…” What drew Paul to pray for the Ephesians wasn’t a church crisis or their lack of faith, but quite the opposite. Because of their faith and because of their love, Paul prays for them.
This isn’t one isolated instance, either:
- “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Phil 1:9-11)
- “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…” (Col 1:9)
- “…and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” (Philemon 6)
And it doesn’t stop at thanksgiving. Paul’s thanksgiving always moves to supplication. He sees their already present faith, love, and wisdom, and asks God to give them more of these very things. It’s their faithfulness, not faithlessness, that compels him to ask God to grant more faith.
This is completely backwards to how many of us view prayer. I seldom pray for friends where they are doing well. I pray for areas they struggle but rarely do I ask God to keep doing what he’s doing or to do even more where they show great faith and great love. Implicitly, I believe those places don’t really need prayer. Instead, I’ll direct my efforts where they need it most.
However, who and what we pray for reveals what we believe about the nature of prayer. Do good things compel us to pray or only tragedy? Do we pray about everything or only hard things? Do we recognize our need for God to continue doing good instead of simply fixing the bad?
Paul’s prayer has a positive focus, not a negative one. By that I mean he doesn’t pray against false teaching or selfishness or disunity—though those prayers are good, too. He doesn’t pray against vice; he prays for particular virtues. This is similar to the pursuit of physical health. We eat well and exercise in order to be healthy, not merely to avoid illness (though, generally speaking, lack of illness is the result of health). In the same way, Paul prays for spiritual health, not just against spiritual sickness.
Paul recognizes, however, that spiritual health is not something that can be worked for or conjured up. Spiritual health flows from knowledge of Christ. To be a Christian, then, is to pursue Christ and not merely to avoid sin. So he prays that the churches would grow in understanding of what they already have in Christ: “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…” (Eph 1:18-19).
So we pray for those who know Christ well, that they would know him even more. We pray for those who live faithfully, that God would do even more through them. When we see strength in others, we pray God would grant more–just like Paul does.
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