Ephesians – Sit, Walk, Stand, Bow – Part 3

This begins our lesson on part 3 of Ephesians. Once we have learned where we sit with the Lord Jesus and we learn what is required to walk worthy; we need to learn how to bow our knees in prayer. Learning how to pray will help us to walk as we have been directed to walk in the book of Ephesians. There are two prayers written by Paul in this book. I love to look at all the prayers in the Bible, because they knew how to pray the type of prayers which God answers. I recommend starting a notebook or list with all the prayers in the Bible. When you don’t know what to pray, then you can refer to this list as inspiration.

The first prayer is found in chapter one of Ephesians, “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, ¹⁸ the eyes of your understanding being enlightened” Eph 1:15-18 (NKJV). The church at Ephesus had a good reputation because Paul had heard of their faith in Jesus and their love towards all saints. If you were to pray this prayer for America, pray that America would have faith in Jesus and have love for all the saints. Remember that a saint is any believer in Jesus Christ. Paul also says that he does not cease giving thanks and mentioning this church in his prayers. We need to remember to thank God for all the righteous churches in America and we need to pray for all of them daily. We are not just a member of an individual church, but we are all members of the one body of Christ. We need to start thinking of ourselves as one body of Christ in America. Not all churches are truly churches, so we can pray for the immature churches or the false churches to find the truth and mature. Paul then prays for the church to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation and that the eyes of their understanding will be enlightened. There is a desperate need for the church in America to have wisdom and understanding. Our nation is full of false preachers and prophets who are misleading people by the thousands. Please pray that our churches will become mature believers in Jesus Christ and will not be tossed around by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14).

Paul’s second prayer can be found in chapter three of Ephesians. He again prays for the church in this prayer. If you read all of Paul’s prayers in the New Testament, you will find that he prays often for the churches he has established. “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height– ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” Eph 3:14-19 (NKJV). In this prayer, Paul prays that the church will be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the inner man and that the church will have faith and be rooted and ground in love. He also prays that they will be filled with the fullness of God.

I hope that this lesson has helped you learn how to pray for the church. We must quit thinking as our own church building as the church. All believers are the church and they make up one body. We as believers need to become one as Christ states in John 17, his high priestly prayer. Please pray with someone today for America. United Prayer is powerful.