WEDNESDAY 18th
Ephesians 1:15-23
NIV (vv15-16) ‘For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.’
ESV (vv15-16) ‘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 . . .’
‘I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers’. When it comes to Paul, we find he is a wonderful example of what a leader in a Church should be like, although he was an apostle, busy pioneering and planting, he also made and gave time to nurturing the work, the sheep, the flock, he was a true shepherd, he showed his care for the people in so many different ways, yes, he did correct and admonish them when it was needed, (as we saw in Galatians) but he also fed them and nourished them with doctrinal truth and with encouragement and exhortation for living out their new found faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as if he wasn’t already busy enough he still found time and made time to pray for them and in verses 16-23 we see what his prayer for them was. Later in the same epistle he will break out into prayer for them again in 3:14-21.
It is good to pray, we pray for ourselves and our families, we pray for the work of the gospel in mission in the UK and around the nations of the world, Jesus himself told us to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth reapers, Matthew 9:37-38, ‘Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’ We should also be praying for those in authority as we are commanded to in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, ‘First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.’ We pray for the sick, the suffering, and sorrowful, (James 5) we pray for the persecuted Church, but we also follow the example of Paul and pray for one another in the body of Christ, in particular our brothers and sisters in the local Church setting where we find ourselves. One of the blessings of being a part of a Church family is to know that others are praying for us and to be able in turn to pray for them. How we pray and when we pray is down to the individual, what matters is that we pray. To end this devotion, thank you for your prayer, thank you for praying for Elaine and myself, we appreciate it very much.