Pray for us: Study 1

Pray for us

"Pray for us" or a similar statement appears 4 times in the N.T. Paul is asking for prayer. This is the first of four short studies on praying for pastors and ministers of the gospel as taught in scripture. Please let me know what you think about these posts by replying after the blog. Also, let others know about the blog because I'd really like to see it be a blessing to "the Body of Christ."

Let me start with a question.

Is a sent out disciple of Jesus' success based much on the prayer to the Lord on their behalf?

Does prayer bring about things that would not have otherwise happened?

Does God want to do more than we're seeing happen but is held back because of our neglect of prayer?

We'll be looking at four texts in this series study:
1. Ephesians 6:19-20
2. Colossians 4:3
3. 1 Thessalonians 5:25
4. 2 Thessalonians 3:1

Today we'll dive into Ephesians 6:19-20.

Contextually, Paul just finished sharing about the full armor of God and I'd suggest reading through it (Eph 6:10-17). Now that he's explained much of the doctrines of the faith in the first three chapters he dives into these final three chapters explaining the duties of the Christian walk. Doctrine is always before duty.

Prayer is probably the most important aspect of the Christian walk. Chuck Smith explained that he believes that when we get to heaven the greatest question we'll have is why we didn't pray more when we were on this earth. So much can be accomplished through prayer.

Now, Paul is asking the Ephesians to pray for him. He knew that his success in what God called him to was very much attached to the prays of those he had ministered to in the past. Lets look deeper into this verse:

"Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Eph 6:19-20

Prayer- proseuche- prayer directed to God; a place set apart or suited for the offering of prayer; prayer is simply communicating with God.

A suggested simple structure to your prayer time that I've used is:

Thanksgiving
Petition(what do you need)
Devotion(listen to Him and talk to Him simply about what's going on in your life)
Supplication(pray for people, their stregth as believers and for unsaved peoples salvation)

Now as you pray what should the substance of your prayer be when praying for ministers of teh gospel?

Utterance- logos- the whole counsel of God; the idea of the intelligently understood scriptures; the main idea of the Logos word of God is truth (John 17:17)

Paul here is telling them to pray that the Logos truth of God's word would go forth wherever he goes. Paul would say, oh that the whole counsel of God would go forth to every person i minister to. May I not water it down so that its not effective but may I share the truth of God's word in its totality.

How did Paul want to share God's word? How does God want His ministers to share the truth of the Word?

Boldness- parresia- freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech, frankly, i.e without concealment, free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance

How was Paul to declare the word of God? with boldness

He needed God's help that would be obtained from the prayers of the people of God to have freedom in speaking about the word of God. He always wanted to exhibit a free and fearless confidence in the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Summary of Paul's prayer request:

Please pray for me that I would share the truth of the gospel with the people God's called me to with cheerful courage, boldness and great assurance of God's ability to change their lives if they would simply receive the gift of eternal life.

Brothers and sisters,

Please pray for us in this regard. We love you so much and trust that our Lord Jesus will lead and remind you to pray for us.

God bless,

Pastor Billy