All-Prayer – Eph. 6:18-20
In Bunyan’s classic allegory, The Pilgrims’ Progress, he describes a
point at which Christian comes to the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He is warned away from it by two men fleeing
from its horrors in these words: “We saw there the hobgoblins, satyrs, and
dragons of the pit; we heard also in that Valley a continual howling and
yelling, as of a people under unutterable misery, who there sat bound in
affliction and irons; and over that Valley hangs discouraging clouds of confusion. Death also doth always spread his wings over
it. In a word, it is every whit
dreadful, being utterly without order.”
Christian’s response is that this is the way to the Celestial City, and
so he ventures forward cautiously, carefully, and, frankly, fearfully. When he begins to approach the Valley, we are
told that in “the midst of this valley, I perceived the mouth of hell to be,
and it stood hard by the wayside. Now,
thought Christian, what shall I do? And
ever and anon the flame and smoke would come out in such abundance, with sparks
and hideous noises, (things that cared not for Christian’s sword, as did
Apollyon before), that he was forced to put up his sword, and betake himself to
another weapon called All-prayer. [Eph. 6:18]
So he cried out in my hearing, ‘O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my
soul!’ [Ps. 116:4].” Bunyan’s character,
Christian, is not saved by the sword but by the weapon of All-prayer. Bunyan, of course, took this from the words
of Paul in our text: “Praying always with all
prayer…” (Eph. 6:18).
Now I’m not sure that Paul actually
intended prayer to be considered a weapon.
In any case, he does not liken prayer to any part of the soldier’s armor
and weaponry. Nevertheless, there is no
doubt that prayer is to accompany the Christian soldier throughout our warfare. This does not describe so much a particular
weapon as it does the attitude with which a Christian is to do war with the
enemy. Prayer is to pervade every aspect
of our combat. We are to stand with the armor and take our weapons as we pray to the Lord for help and depend
upon him for strength and guidance.
I think perhaps the best Biblical
illustration of this comes from the reign of good king Jehoshaphat. In 2 Chron. 20, we are told that the nations
and Moab, Ammon, and their confederates united to attack the nation of
Judah. Against their numbers, the army
of Judah was no match. So what did
Jehoshaphat do? He “set himself to seek
the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together, to
ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the
LORD” (20:3-4). In the next few verses,
you have this great prayer of the king to the Lord (ver. 5-12), which ends with
these words: “O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great
company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are
upon thee.”
God responds to their request
through the words of the prophet Jahaziel (ver. 14-17). The gist of it was this: you will not have to
fight; God will fight for you. And that
is exactly what happened. Judah believed
the word of the Lord. And so instead of
going out to battle with swords flashing, they go into battle line with a line
of priests singing praise to the Lord.
We read, “And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the
wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear
me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in the LORD your God, so
shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he
appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness,
as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy
endureth forever” (ver. 20-21).
In the end, Judah didn’t even have
to fight. Instead, God turned the
enemies of Israel upon each other, and God’s people just watched as their
enemies destroy themselves. The key to
the victory here was not the power of the sword, but the power of prayer. Not that prayer is itself powerful, of
course. Prayer is only as powerful as
the God to whom it addresses is powerful.
But since the God of Judah is the God of the universe, their enemies had
no power over them. They stood in the
evil day through prayer.
Here is a NT illustration of the
principle of the text before us. In
several of the gospels, we have this story of the father whose son is afflicted
by demons. He had asked the disciples to
cast out the demon but they were unable.
At the time, Jesus and three of his apostles were gone (they were on the
Mount of Transfiguration). They returned
just as things were getting pretty embarrassing for the disciples that had been
left. Our Lord then cast the demon out
with no problem. Flummoxed, the apostles
asked the Lord why they were not able to do this themselves. I want you to hear the Lord’s very
interesting reply: he told them they were not able to cast this demon out
“because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a
grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, ‘Remove hence to yonder
place;’ and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit
this kind goeth not out but by prayer” (Mt. 17:20-21).
Our Lord’s response points to two
realities that we would do well to take heed to. First, that prayer is the response of faith
and that the measure of our faith can be determined by our prayer life. The words, “this kind goeth not out but by
prayer” indicate that the disciples had not sought the exorcism of the demon
through prayer. In other words, they
were relying on their own power and ability, as strange as that might
seem. I suppose that, after you’ve cast
out a few demons, anyone could get cocky.
But our Lord says that it was their unbelief that was their undoing on
this particular occasion, and then points to their prayer life. Faith and prayer go together. Sinful
self-confidence and self-righteousness and prayerlessness go together too. And whereas the Lord blesses the former, he
will not bless the latter.
The second reality to which our
Lord’s words point is that some situations require more conscious seeking and
dependence upon the Lord than others.
They had cast out other demons, but this one wouldn’t budge. Why?
“This kind” was different from the others. I don’t know particularly much about demons,
but apparently some are worse than others.
This points up to a general principle: there are some things in the
spiritual realm you are not going to be able to accomplish apart from a life of
faith and prayer. Talents and ability
and personality won’t do it. These
things may count for a lot in this world and its priorities, but not before
God. As the Psalm puts it, “He [God]
delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs
of a man.” Rather, “the LORD taketh
pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Ps.
147:10-11). It’s when we are weak (in
terms of our own personal strength) that we are truly strong (in terms of God’s
grace and empowerment, 2 Cor. 12:9-10).
These two illustrations, one from
the OT and one from NT, show us why the apostle would say what he does
here. Prayer is immensely important. It is important, not as another box to check
on our spiritual duties list, but as a way to express our dependence and faith
in our Savior. These illustrations show
us that true spiritual victory is accomplished not so much by what we do, but
by what God does by his grace for us and through us. And the only way to truly live this reality
out is through prayer. If we really
believe that it is not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of God (cf.
Zech. 4:6) that we conquer, then this conviction will express itself in
regular, real, believing prayer.
But the apostle does not focus so
much on the why of prayer here. He assumes it, more or less. Rather, he focuses on the how of prayer. How are we to pray? Here is how: “always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and
supplication for all saints: and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that
I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which
I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to
speak” (Eph. 6:18-20). In particular,
there are four universals that are to characterize our prayer life: we are to
pray with all prayer, at all times, with all perseverance, and for all
the saints.
All Prayer
There are different kinds of
prayer. There are prayers of
thanksgiving, prayers of deliverance, prayers of praise, prayers for direction,
and so on. Our prayers ought to be as
varied as our needs. In fact, the
description of prayer by the term “supplication” points to prayer as that by
which we address to God our needs. It is
a word which points in the direction of neediness, of lack, of want, and of
entreating God to meet us at our point of need.
We come to him, not as one who is “rich and increased with goods and
have need of nothing” but as those who are “wretched and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). The
Psalmist described himself as “poor and needy” (Ps. 40:17), a fit description
for you and me as well! The great thing
is that, despite our poverty and emptiness, “yet the Lord thinketh upon me” and
therefore we pray, “thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my
God.”
We are to commit to God all our
needs, both small and great. We are not
to think that there is anything too small for the notice of our God, who knows
even the number of the hairs upon our heads.
He who cares for the grass of the field and the birds of the air
certainly cares for our littlest needs.
There is nothing that escapes his notice, nothing beneath his dignity
for which we cannot pray. Isn’t this how
the apostle exhorts us in his letter to the Philippians? “Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6).
In doing so, we will learn to
bring all our life under the sovereignty of God, which is where it should
be. This is what the apostle James is
getting at, when he rebukes those who cavalierly make plans without
consideration of God’s will in the matter.
“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city,
and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not
what shall be on the morrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapor, that
appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will,
we shall live, and do this or that” (Jm. 4:13-15). Approaching every situation with the prayer,
“If the Lord will,” is the only way to submit our hearts to God’s sovereign
will over our lives.
But prayers of supplication are
not the only category of prayer. Prayer
is not just to be a litany of needs presented before God. Thanksgiving ought to be a great part of our
prayer life. If we don’t make room for
thanksgiving, we will end up forgetting just how blessed we already are in
Christ. Thanksgiving is a preventative
to bitterness. It also keeps us from
developing an entitlement attitude.
Thanksgiving reminds us that God doesn’t owe us anything, that
everything comes to us as a gift of grace.
Then there should be
confession. “If we confess our sins” is
a necessary part of walking in the light as he is in the light (1 Jn.
1:9). May God prevent us from ever
taking on the attitude of the Pharisee who could only see the sins of others
and not his own. When we pray asking for
God to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we are acknowledging our dependence
upon the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and our need of God’s righteousness
which comes to us through him by faith.
It is also the first step to dealing with our sins. If you cannot even bring up your sins in
secret confession to God, how in the world are you going to even begin to think
of mortifying them in our life? So let
confession be a part of your prayer life.
And then there ought to be the
element of worship in our prayers. What
I mean by this is that our prayers ought to be characterized by a sense of awe
and reverence and humility and joy. It’s
why when our Lord taught his disciples to pray, the very first words are, “Our
Father which art in heaven, hallowed by thy name” (Mt. 6:9). We are so liable to pride that we need to
constantly be humbling ourselves. But we
also need to be reminded just how small we are and how great God is. It is the first step in true religion. There is a book, written by Ed Welch,
entitled, When People are Big and God is
Small. It’s a book intended to deal
with all the problems that come from magnifying people and minimizing God. And certainly a lot of problems start
here.
But ultimately the reason for the
element of worship in our prayers is that God is worthy of our worship. He is worthy in a way no one else is. He is the only source of eternal joy and
gladness. At the end of the day, our
greatest need is God himself, not the things he gives, but himself. When we worship him, we are acknowledging
that reality. Let us pray with “all
prayer and supplication.”
Before we address the next universal,
notice that the apostle describes this praying and praying “in the
Spirit.” This points to the reality that
prayer is not just a matter of turning prayer wheels. It is real communion with the living
God. You are not going to really pray if
you don’t believe that. But the point of
the apostle is that this is exactly what prayer is for the Christian. Christ has provided a way into the very
presence of God. “Through him we both
have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). Prayer therefore is not something we do just to
make ourselves feel better. It is not
something we do to lower our blood pressure.
No, it is talking to God in the most real and literal sense and knowing
that God is listening to you.
In fact, Paul says in his letter
to the Romans, that even in the situation where we find ourselves unable to
know what to pray, the Spirit of God himself steps in and prays for us:
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we
should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of
God” (Rom. 8:26-27). This being the
case, why is it that we do not avail ourselves of this privilege more than we
do? Paul is saying that, apart from sin
separating us from fellowship with God, there is literally no way you can go
wrong in prayer. Even when you don’t
know how to pray, even then we can pray the most spiritual prayers!
All Times
In the KJV, the apostle opens by
saying, “Praying always.” The text literally says, “on every occasion,”
or, as some translate it, “at every opportunity.”[1] As the apostle says in another place, we are
to “pray without ceasing” (1Thess. 5:17).
I take this to mean that the Christian is to maintain an attitude of
prayer throughout the day and throughout one’s life. There is never a moment when we do not need
God, and therefore there is not a moment when we should not be able to
pray. Theologian John Gill once described
prayer as the breath of the regenerate man, and I think he is exactly
right. Prayer is not just something we
do at discrete points in time; it is an attitude that we ought to carry with us
throughout the day.
Again, this points to the
privilege that belongs to the Christian.
The fact that we are to be continually engaged in prayer means that
heaven’s gates are always open to the Christian. If we do not avail ourselves of the privilege
of prayer, it is not because God is not listening. It is because we have become self-satisfied,
like the apostles who couldn’t cast out the demon and didn’t even think to
avail themselves of the power of prayer.
All perseverance
Praying at every opportunity goes
hand and hand with another part of Paul’s description of the how of prayer:
“watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication.” This points to maintaining an earnest purpose
for preserving prayer as a part of our lives.
It means that we don’t give up when we don’t get what we pray for. It means that we don’t stop praying because
we feel neglected by God. It means that
we keep praying even when we don’t feel like it.
The fact of the matter is that
prayer is hard. Anyone who tells you
different must have a different experience from most of the saints throughout
history. Prayer is hard because it is
part of a spiritual battle, and battle is hard.
The devil knows that God blesses prayer and it is to his advantage that
he keep you from praying.
This is why our Lord spoke the
parable of the unjust judge in Luke 18.
Do you remember how this parable is introduced by Luke? He says, “And he spake a parable unto them to
this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Lk. 18:1). Our Lord spoke this parable to encourage us
to pray because he knew that it is easy for us to become discouraged and to
stop praying. Looking at the parable, it
seems that our Lord’s point is that, like the widow, we have to keep coming to
God, even we it doesn’t seem like God is listening to our requests. God does not always answer our prayers on our
time schedule. God answered Isaac’s
prayer for Rebekah twenty years later, it seems. God answered Zachariah’s prayer for Elizabeth
long after he had stopped praying for it and had completely given up on
it. But God had heard, he had listened,
and he did answer their prayers.
Now this doesn’t mean that if we
badger God long enough, he is eventually going to give in to our every
request. Thank God he doesn’t! But it does mean that every prayer is heard
and received with love, and is answered according to the counsels of infinite
wisdom, power, and grace.
We don’t give up on prayer,
because giving up on prayer means that we have given up on God. But God is faithful, and he will never give
up on us. Therefore, let us pray with
all perseverance.
All saints
Finally, Paul says we are to pray
for “all saints.” It has been pointed
out many times over that the Lord’s Prayer is a communal prayer, not a prayer
of the rugged individualist. In the same
way, Paul reminds us that when we pray, we are to pray for all the saints. Of course this doesn’t mean every Christian
in the world. But it does mean that we
are to pray for those believers that are in the sphere of our influence and
notice. Begin with your own home, and
then work outward in increasing circles of people you are connected to. Of course this doesn’t mean we don’t pray for
our own needs. But God doesn’t have us
on this earth for ourselves; we are here to serve others. And part of that service to others is to pray
for them.
You see this illustrated in
several delightful ways in the NT. I
think of Epaphras, who is described to the Colossian believers as “a servant of
Christ . . . always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand
perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12). It is what James exhorts us to when he
writes, “Pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much” (Jm. 5:16).
And Paul himself wants to get in
on this, as he does in other places as well (cf. Rom. 15:30). In particular, he asks them to pray for him
so that he will have boldness in proclaiming the gospel.
It is well that we hear
this. Do we not often think, “Well,
what’s the point? Why pray when God is
sovereign?” Whereas we ought to say,
“Why pray at all if God is not sovereign?”
If God’s hands are tied, if he has already done everything he can and
now it’s up to us, then there really is no point in praying. But if God is sovereign, then we can have
confidence that our prayers will be answered.
We can have confidence because the Scriptures teach us that God has
chosen to use prayer to further his purposes in the earth. And having chosen prayer, we can be sure that
God will use it. God’s sovereign control
over all things is no reason to sit on our hands and do nothing. Prayer is God’s sovereignly chosen means to
advance his kingdom, his glory, and our eternal good in this world and the
next.
This being the case, we cannot
expect God’s blessings apart from prayer.
There is very real danger lurking around the corner for those who do not
pray. The apostles found this out when
they slept instead of praying. We should
hear our Lord’s words to them and appropriate them for ourselves: “Watch and pray,
that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh
is weak” (Mt. 26:41). They didn’t and
entered into temptation. Peter denied
Christ, and the rest abandoned him.
So let us pray. With all prayer, at all times, with all perseverance,
for all the saints. It’s an incredible
privilege given to us through the redeeming work of God’s own Son. Therefore let us take every advantage of this
amazing blessing!
Comments
Post a Comment