For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, 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 towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1.15-21
Do you pray big prayers?
I fear that very often our prayers are limited to secondary matters, not that these are unimportant, and we fail to draw on the limitless resources that are available to us in Christ.
Let us learn from Paul and how he prayed for the Ephesian Christians. As we saw yesterday they would surely have been encouraged in their Christian walk by knowing that Paul prayed for them, but it is when we dig a little deeper and see what he prayed for them that we should get excited. Why should we get excited? Because the same blessings prayed down from the God of heaven are available for you and me!
He prayed that:
God would give them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.
The eyes of their hearts would be enlightened.
They might know the hope to which God had called them.
They might know the riches of the inheritance which was theirs in Christ.
They might know the immeasurable greatness of his power available for believers demonstrated in the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
They might know that as a consequence of the resurrection, Christ is now seated at the right hand of God, having all rule and authority and power and dominion, now and in the ages to come.
There is rich material to mine in these verses and we will dig a little into each of the above in the coming days, although this side of heaven we will never find all that treasure that is here and available to us who believe.
In the meantime, while waiting for heaven, there is nothing to stop us praying like this for our fellow believers now and every day.
Along with such praying let us encourage one another in talking about what God as taught us as we grow in stature in Christ as a consequence of our prayers for each other.