Struggling In Prayer.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. – Colossians 4:12 ESV We all struggle with prayer at times. It comes with the territory. Prayer can be hard. But the kind of struggle we’re going to talk about in this blog is something a bit different than finding prayer hard to do. The word Paul uses in the Greek is agōnizomai and you can see that it is where we get our English words agony and agonize. In Paul’s day it was a word typically used when referring to someone entered into gymnastic games. It had to do with competition, contending, fighting, or laboring against an opponent of difficulty. It also carried the meaning “to endeavour with strenuous zeal.” So when Paul said Epaphras was “always struggling” in his prayers on behalf of the believers in Colosse, he wasn’t inferring that Epaphras had a hard time praying. He meant that this young man’s prayer life was marked by agonizing effort and energetic zeal. Paul had evidently seen and heard him pray. He had been an eye-witness to the determination and dedication behind the prayers of Epaphras. I have a feeling his prayers were much more than just “Lord, would you bless the people in Colosse.” He didn’t just ask God to be with them and watch over them. Paul says that the overriding theme of his prayers was that they would “stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.”

Epaphras was a Greek who had become a follower of Jesus Christ and had played a significant role in helping to establish the church in Colosse. “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant” (Colossians 1:5-7 ESV). Epaphras had a vested interest in the health of the church in Colosse. He wanted it to thrive. So he prayed for “God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God” (NLT). His was not just a short, sweet prayer offered on a one-time basis, but an ongoing, persevering petition that was accompanied by an intense desire to see God answer. Epaphras wanted to see them mature in their faith and grow in their knowledge of God’s will for them. It is essentially the same prayer Paul prayed for them at the very beginning of his letter. “So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9 NLT). And Paul gave the end result that would accompany God’s answer to his prayer: “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better” (Colossians 1:10 NLT).

Paul and Epaphras both knew what the believers in Colosse needed. They needed more of God. They needed God to mature them by revealing His will to them. They desperately needed to know what God wanted them to know and do. With that knowledge and the Holy Spirit’s help, they would have what they needed to live lives that honored and pleased God.

Do we agonize and labor prayerfully for that to happen among the believers with whom we worship and serve? Do we go to the mat with God, pleading that He will reveal His will to our loved ones and friends, asking that He make them strong and perfect? Are we concerned enough for the spiritual maturity that we pray fervently and repeatedly that they know and follow the whole will of God? For Epaphras, praying for his friends in Colosse was a labor of love. He did it gladly. He did it tirelessly. Because he was not going to be content until he saw God’s answer in the form of lives that pleased and honored Him. We could stand to struggle a bit more in our prayer lives. Not with prayer itself, but in the content and focus of our prayers. We should so desire what God desires, that we are not content until we see His will done in the lives of those we love. God’s desire for each of His children is their growth in Christ-likeness. He wants to see them mature. He wants to see them living within His will. We should want the same thing. And we should not stop praying for it until we see God’s answer appear in transformed lives that bring glory and honor to Him.

Holy Help.

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. – 2 Corinthians 1:11 ESV Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ and he took his responsibility to spread the good news quite seriously. He traveled far and wide taking the message of salvation made available through faith in Jesus to as many of the Gentile lands he could possibly reach. On those journeys he encountered those who embraced his message eagerly, but also those who offered intense opposition. He was regularly rejected, ridiculed, thrown out of the synagogue, falsely accused, chased out of town and even stoned and left for dead. Paul told the believers in Corinth, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9 ESV). There were few who could relate to Paul's experiences. The list of those who were putting their life on the line by sharing the gospel in hostile situations was short. Yes, there was persecution going on all over the world at that time, but there were not many who were performing the role of an official missionary for the gospel. Paul's calling was unique. His commission to take the gospel to the Gentiles was given to him personally by Christ himself and to him alone. 

Paul wasn't complaining about his lot in life. He was whining to the believers in Corinth about all that he had to suffer for the sake of Christ. In fact, he was sharing all that he had gained through his trials on behalf of Christ. “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Corinthians 11:9-10 ESV). Through all his difficulties, Paul had learned to trust in God. He had seen God deliver him time and time again, so he knew that God would not fail to deliver him in the future. He was content to trust God's plan for his life. But his contentment with God's will did not stop him from asking for prayers on his behalf. He specifically asked those to whom he was writing for their help – in the form of their prayers. “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” While they could not travel with Paul or assist him by taking the gospel to foreign lands, they could come to his aid by going to their knees. They could pray for his ministry, his health, and his safety. They could ask God to continue to provide protection. They could pray for those to whom Paul would minister, that they would have receptive ears and soft hearts. There is power in prayer. Through prayer, we come humbly before God and ask Him to do what only He can do. We acknowledge our need for His assistance. We share our heart with Him that His will be done. We show Him that we care about what He cares about. Paul was asking for their prayers. He coveted their prayers on his behalf. He knew that the greatest assistance they could provide to him would be through their prayers for him. “In prayer, human impotence casts itself at the feet of divine omnipotence” (Philip E. Hughes, Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians, pp. 23). 

Prayer allows us to do things we could not possibly do in the flesh. We can't be everywhere at once. We can't physically be with every person in our family at the same time. We have limits. We have physical constraints. But through prayer, we are able to span distances, expand our reach, multiply our efforts and provide our assistance to those we can't even see. Paul knew there was power in prayer. He had experienced it. He knew there were countless individuals, in cities all across Macedonia, Asia and Galatia who were praying for him as he traveled. They were praying for his work, his health, and his message. He could sense their love for him and their common concern for his work. Paul did not take their prayers lightly. He coveted them. He asked for them. He knew he needed them.

Through prayer we can accomplish far more than we can through our own efforts. Prayer engages God. Prayer unleashes a power we do not possess. Prayer reminds us that God is the one who must accomplish the impossible, not us. God has no limits. He is not hampered by time constraints. Distance creates no barrier for Him. By reaching out to Him, we are able to touch the lives of those we cannot see and the hearts of those we don't even know. We can pray for the lost around the world. We can lift up the work of missionaries we have never even met. We can offer up our concerns for the work of the gospel in places we will never get to go. Through prayer, we can help in ways that go far beyond our human capabilities and accomplish more than we could ever imagine. They say technology has made the world “smaller.” From the safety of our home we can see what's going on around the world. We can talk to someone on the other side of the planet. We can watch events taking place in distance lands as if we were there. I can Skype with a missionary working in Africa. I can send a text of encouragement to a friend on a different continent. I can receive images instantaneously from someone thousands of miles away. But prayer does far more. It unleashes the power of God. It allows me to not only stay in touch, but to connect in practical, powerful ways. Prayer shrinks the world, expands our reach, spreads the gospel, and exposes our dependence upon the power of God.

Pure and Blameless.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9-11 ESV

It was Paul's prayer that those to whom he wrote would increase in love, but in a love that would be accompanied by knowledge and discernment. It was his desire that their love would be truth-based and God-directed. He knew that the kind of love God required was different than that found in the world. God's brand of love produces a life that is pure and blameless. That doesn't mean that we can live sinless, perfect lives on this earth, but as we learn to love as God loves, it produces an increasing degree of Christ-likeness in our lives. The love of God is selfless and sincere, not selfish and hypocritical. In his great “love chapter,” Paul describes God's love in these terms: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT). That is the kind of love that Paul prays will abound or increase more and more. It is that kind of love that will allow us to stand before Christ some day pure and blameless. And Paul reminds us that this kind of love is the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. He must produce this kind of love within us. We can't fake it or self-manufacture it. Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT). Love is a byproduct of righteousness. Righteousness is a gift provided to us by Jesus Christ. Isaiah reminds us that, “When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NLT).

We must never forget that our righteousness comes from Christ. In the same way, our ability to love comes from Christ. We cannot love with the kind of love He did apart from Him. Jesus commanded us to “love one another: just as I have loved you” (John 13:34 ESV). The apostle John writes, “let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7 ESV). So we are to love on God's terms. We are to love with God's love. That is the kind of love Paul prays will increase more and more in the lives of believers. And when we love like that, God gets all the praise, glory and honor. Why? Because, apart from Him, we couldn't pull it off. Jesus made it very clear. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 ESV). Bearing fruit – the fruit of righteousness – is what it is all about. And that fruit includes love – the kind of love that was modeled by God, comes through Christ, is made possible by the indwelling Holy Spirit and produces a pure and blameless life.

The reason Paul prayed for this to happen was because He knew that it was not going to be the norm for any believers. Our sin natures are constantly seeking to get us to love by our own standard, not God's. We are prone to selfishness and self-centeredness. We seek our own way. We love only if we get love in return. We operate with a what's-in-it-for-me mentality. So Paul prayed that our love would increase. But he wanted it to be God's kind of love. For that to happen, he knew that God would have to produce it. That requires a knowledge of God and a willing reliance upon the Holy Spirit's direction in our lives. To love what God loves, we must know Him well enough to understand where His heart lies. We must have knowledge and discernment to know the difference between our loves and His. As we grow to know Him better, we will end up loving what He loves. We will love like He loves. His love is always focused on righteousness and redemption. He loves in order to bring about change and transformation. His love has a purpose. It is always for our good and His glory. We must learn to love that way. It is His love, perfect in us and flowing through us, that will make a real difference in this world, and result in our lives being pure and blameless when we stand before Him some day.

The Knowledge of Him.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward 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 the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him… – Ephesians 1:15-17 ESV

Ephesians 1:15-22

Paul's prayers were personal and practical, but in a spiritual sort of way. His prayers cut to the chase, aiming straight for the heart of the issue in the lives of those for whom he prayed. The theme of his prayers tended to revolve around their spiritual maturity and the ongoing development of their relationship with God. And Paul was not just content to pray for these things and leave them up to God. He had been willing to play his part, having helped start many of the churches to whom he wrote and writing his letters filled with instruction, encouragement and, at times, admonition and correction. Paul was not a glass-half-empty kind of guy, who always saw the negative side of everything. He was optimistic and always encouraged when he heard good reports regarding the congregations to whom he ministered. In the case of the brothers and sisters at Ephesus, he had received news of their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the saints. This report caused him to thank God. He knew this was evidence of the work of God in their lives. What a much-needed reminder for those of us who tend to see the faults and the failures, while overlooking the obvious activity of God in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul was not afraid to point out spiritual short-comings, but he was always eager to look for God-sightings in the lives of others. Evidence of spiritual transformation did not go unnoticed by Paul and his gratitude to God never went unexpressed.

Paul was not only thankful to God for His work in the lives of the people of God, he was thankful to God for those individuals. He told them, “I do not cease to give thanks for you” (Ephesians 1:16 ESV). He was grateful to God for them. He legitimately loved them and that love flowed out in the form of regular, heart-felt prayer for them. He wanted to see their faith and love increase, and he knew that the key to that happening was for their knowledge of God to increase, which is why he prayed: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17 ESV). His request was that God's Spirit, the Spirit of truth, would provide them with wisdom and revelation when it comes to their knowledge of God. The idea of revelation has to do with disclosing of truth or making the unknown known. Paul knew that those for whom he prayed would need the Spirit's help in discerning the truth regarding God. In his letter to the Corinthians, he wrote, “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-12 ESV). In a sense, Jesus made God known to man. He made it possible for men to have a right relationship with God and know and experience His love, grace and mercy. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to know God better and better.

What Paul knew was that every believer needs one thing and one thing only – more knowledge of God. Jesus Christ restored our relationship with God. He made it possible for us to enter into God's presence. The Holy Spirit now provides us with the ability to grow in our knowledge of God. And that increasing knowledge of Him is what informs us of His will and transforms us into the likeness of His Son as we willingly submit ourselves to that will. It is interesting to think about all the times we have prayed for God to remove someone from a difficult situation or to relieve them of a particular burden. But did we stop to think that God may be trying to reveal Himself to them in the midst of what they are going through? Did we ever consider that God might be wanting to give them His Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him and that is His purpose behind their trial or difficulty? The people to whom Paul wrote in Ephesus were not immune to problems. They were new converts to Christ living in a hostile environment. Christianity was still new and novel and those who professed faith in Christ were often treated with hostility and resentment. Paul knew any hope they had for survival was based on their knowledge of God. Knowledge of God would provide them with knowledge of His will. They would better understand and appreciate His love. They would be better equipped to recognize His power and put their faith in it when times got tough. A growing knowledge of God is the greatest need of every believer. It is the essence of what it means to have eternal life. Jesus put it this way: “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3 ESV). So our prayer for one another should be that we grow to know God better and better – experientially, not just academically. Knowing God is more important than trying to please God. Knowing God is better than attempting to serve God. Getting to know God is more vital to our spiritual well-being than getting things from God.