The Appeal of Prayer

We've been looking at Paul’s second prayer in Ephesians (3:12-21). Having looked at the Attitudes of prayer (vs. 12‑13) and the Approach to Prayer (vs. 14‑15), we come to Appeal of prayer (vs. 16-19).

It’s really hard to know how to start addressing such a sublime passage as this. In the opening words of his message on verse 16, that great 19^th Century expositor Alexander MacClaren stated: “In no part of Paul’s letters does he rise to a higher level than in his prayers, and none of his prayers are fuller of fervor than this wonderful series of petitions. They open out one into the other like some majestic suite of apartments in a great palace-temple, each leading into a loftier and more spacious hall, each drawing nearer the presence-chamber, until at last we stand there.”

Indeed, no other prayer of Paul rises higher in content than this one. In fact, this prayer is one of the highest mountain peaks in all Scripture.

As we've observed before, may we note again that Paul is concerned with the spiritual, not the material. This is, in fact, an underlying principle of Paul’s life. Before we deal with what he did pray for, let us consider what he did not pray for. First, Paul didn't pray for himself. He didn't ask for a change in his circumstances, nor did he ask for any physical thing for himself. Second, Paul did not pray some “general prayer” for other believers. We see today many “generic prayers.” We hear a lot of prayers like, “Lord, bless all the missionaries,” or, “Lord, bless everyone in our church.” In contrast, Paul prayed for specific spiritual realities in the lives of God’s people. Third, as we've said before, Paul didn't even pray for material things for others, rather spiritual things. Oh, how often our prayers are filled to overflowing with material petitions when they are of secondary importance  Again, we can and should pray for material needs, but these are secondary. Moreover, even when we do pray for such things, the final result should be some spiritual reality, a spiritual end. A physical need should never be the end in itself. The end, the ultimate goal, should be a spiritual one.

Now let us now turn to what Paul did pray for. A truly amazing truth here is that Paul’s four petitions progressively build upon one another. We could present them this way: Paul prays that they would be strengthened by the Spirit (v. 16), so that Christ may indwell by faith (v. 17), so that they may comprehend Christ’s love (vs. 18-19a), so that they may be filled with the fullness of God (v. 19b).

What a truth this is! We shall come back to this fact over and over in our study. As Alexander Maclaren again puts it: “Each [petition] is the cause of the following and the result of the preceding.” Like Paul, these are the petitions every pastor should be praying for his people.