Thank you to Phillip for this week’s message.
Reflections:
Read Ephesians 1:15-23.
Praying for wisdom
For the next three weeks we shall be reflecting on some of Paul’s prayers for the young churches he had helped to establish. This first week we shall be looking together at Paul’s prayer for the Christians at Ephesus. A notebook might be useful to us!!
Here are the verses below:
Thanksgiving and Prayer
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
One thing that really stands out in Paul’s prayers is his commitment to the Christians he is praying for. This prayer (1:15) shows Paul’s love and concern for the spiritual growth and well-being of the Ephesian church. In verse 17, Paul prays that the Ephesians would know God better. This is a prayer that God delights to answer. This prayer draws us into deeper levels of intimacy and knowledge of who God is and what he has done for us. The more we know of God, the more we trust and believe him.
Reflect:
- Are there things we can do that help us to get to know God better each day?
Pray:
- Pray for those close to us that they may come to know God better each day and may have the spirit of wisdom.
Praise:
- Give praise for God’s power at work with us and in many different situations.
- A prayer to pray: Day by day, dear Lord, of thee three things I pray:
to see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly,
follow thee more nearly, day by day. Richard, Bishop of Chichester (1244)