A Prayer for Understanding

Prayer is vital in our relationship with our Father in Heaven. The disciples knew this and asked Jesus how to pray. Jesus gives them an example, not a prayer to recite, but an example:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.  Matthew 6:9-13

Though this is just meant as an example of prayer, John 17:1-26 records a lengthy prayer of Jesus for Himself, for His disciples, and for all believers. It is an actual heartfelt prayer, not an example or model, though it is well worth considering as a model.

The Bible has many such prayers recorded. In fact, the book of Psalms has a number of David’s prayers, in particular: Psalm 3; Psalm 30; Psalm 42; Psalm 51; Psalm 63; and Psalm 139 are some standout examples. I would like to share just one:

​O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek my life, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword; They shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; Everyone who swears by Him shall glory; But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped. Psalms 63:1-11

There appear two prayers in Ephesians: 

• Ephesians 1:15-23 –  the theme “that you might know” – a prayer for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding 
• Ephesians 3:13-21 – the theme “that you might be” – a prayer for strengthening, faithfulness, and grounding

Paul prays first that we might know what Christ has done for us; then he prays that we might live up to these wonderful blessings and put them to work in our daily lives. 

We will focus on the prayer recorded in Ephesians and take note of Paul’s requests.

Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which 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 principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:15-23

Paul’s first request is that God may give us spiritual understanding 

Spiritual truths must be discerned spiritually.  Consider what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:9-16:

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things 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 know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

We understand that the specific audience to whom Paul was writing in his first letter to the Corinthians, some twenty plus years after the crucifixion of Christ, still had spiritual gifts that no longer abound today, nor are necessary as we have the completed revelation of God’s Word. Some of these ancient brethren would have a small, special revelation from the Holy Spirit — and of course, the inspired writers of the New Testament had their special revelation.

Today, our spiritual understanding comes from our time in the Word and in prayer.  The Word of God has been delivered to us through the Holy Spirit and He intercedes in our prayers (Romans 8:26). We read the Bible comparing spiritual with spiritual, not depending on some external source to provide our understanding.

Paul’s next request is that we might know the hope of His calling

Paul expresses this calling in Ephesians 1:4-6, “ … just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, o the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

Jesus has called us to more than this little life man would design for himself. Paul says, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). The upward call — homeward. Paul is teaching us to press toward the goal, keeping our eyes fixed on Christ. We have been called to serve Him with our whole lives.

Paul makes an important declaration to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:8-12 where he writes:

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

Finally on this point, in Ephesians 4:1-6 Paul confirms: 

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

We were called with hope and purpose. Paul, in his prayer, is saying, “I want you to know this.” We don’t stumble through the Christian life. No, we walk intently with purpose, knowing our calling. Paul is reminding the Ephesian brethren, and us, that we have a purpose and a calling and we need to remember that. Know it in our hearts — in our bones.

Christianity is not a mistake. It is not a habit. It is not something we do just because someone else does. It is our walk of faith in Him who called us to one day be at home with Him eternally in Heaven.

Paul’s third request is that we might know the riches of His inheritance

The word riches appears several times in Ephesians, to inform us that there is nothing lacking, nothing more that we need. We have riches. We are not weary pilgrims, poor, merely hoping to make it to the next day. Instead, we are filled with God’s grace and by His glory, He takes care of us and gives us what we need — physically and spiritually.

Peter writes:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:2-4

Peter is speaking of the same theme. The Bible is a tapestry. As you pull one thread, it touches so many other threads. There is a consistent message in the Scriptures. We should not be surprised.

Agreeing with Paul’s prayer, Peter is declaring that we need to know that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. What more is it that we need?

And Paul’s final request is that we might know His power

It is incredibly important that we understand the power of Whom we serve. We have not given our lives to God lightly. We do not obey Him because of clever stunts that seemed to demonstrate His power. We serve him with our whole lives because He is the God of Creation,

• Who has spoken everything into existence, 
• Who saved eight souls while cleansing the world of sin with a worldwide flood, 
• Who delivered the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt on dry land through the midst of the Red Sea — having that same sea crash down and destroy the following army,
• And Who raised His Son, Jesus, from the awful death on the cross which He died to save us from our sins.

We will end on this point — with one final passage and one final thought.

In Romans 8:31-39, Paul puts perfectly the power God wields on our behalf:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:15-23), is not just for them but for us and all Christians. Consider his prayer carefully and let it encourage you to know God more perfectly and to know yourself as you ought to be known before Him: faithful!