Do you think you are growing or maturing in your prayer life? Why?
Are there at least three notable differences in the way you pray today compared to a year ago? What are they?
1.____________________________________________________________2.____________________________________________________________3.____________________________________________________________
How would you encourage a new believer in Christ about prayer from what you have learned and have experienced from your own prayer life?
If we are sincere in asking ourselves these questions, our answers should be considerably more than a simple yes or no.
Daily prayer is essential to a Christian’s relationship with God, spiritual health and growth. An obvious indicator and contributor of a Christian’s Spiritual maturity is their prayer life. The more we pray the more we will realize there is always more to learn and more to be experienced about prayer than what we understand at the moment.
Why is it that many Christians only value prayer when there is a need in their life or the life of a loved one? Have you ever heard a prayer request that was not based on a need such as wanting God to do something or needing something from God? The Bible is full of examples of prayers based on needing to receive something from God. But the Bible also gives us examples of prayers that are about what God can do in the life of others. This is seen with the most extensive and detailed prayer of Jesus we have recorded in the New Testament which is in John chapter 17.
John 17:1-5, 1 After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. 2 For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. 3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. 4 I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
When Jesus was praying for himself in chapter John 17, it was the night of His arrest before His trial and crucifixion, which He knew was going to happen very soon after He finished praying.
The focus of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:1-5 is best described by the commentary in the Spirit Filled Life Study Bible. “The petition of Jesus for Himself is not selfish, since His desire is to glorify the Father. To glorify Him is to make Him known. Jesus would soon be manifested as the Savior of the world through His atoning death. Believers in Him will know God and thus possess eternal life.”
Please read John chapter 17 in your Bibles to best understand the following points regarding this chapter.
In verses 6-19 Jesus prays for His disciples. Jesus makes this very clear as we see in verse 9, “My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you.” Notice who Jesus is focusing on as He prays. As before, the Spirit Filled Life Study Bible give us a good summary of this portion of Jesus’ prayer. “Although He does not pray that His immediate disciples may be removed from the world, He does pray that they will be kept from the world’s evil through the Father’s name (vv. 6-16). He also prays that they might be sanctified, that is, set apart for the ministry of truth (vv. 17-19).”
In verses 20-26 Jesus prays for you and me. “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.” Again, please take note of how Jesus prays for us which exemplifies His heart in spite of knowing the adversity He was going to very soon experience. “In His final petition Jesus prays for the unity of all believers of subsequent generations. The oneness He requests is not an organizational but a spiritual unity, which, will be visibly manifested in the life of the church and will bear witness to the divine mission of Christ.”
What are the many different points we can learn about the maturity of our prayer life from how Jesus prayed for others in John chapter 17?
Under the leading of the Holy Spirit when our prayers are focused on others, we begin to pray for them to experience God as we have experienced Him in our lives. This is very clear as we see in the in the two prayers that the apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian church.
The following verses about prayer are not based on the need of those being prayed for, such as to receive material things from God. Nor for Paul’s personal needs as a prisoner in Rome, Ephesians 3:1, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus…”, Ephesians 4:1, “As a prisoner for the Lord…”, Ephesians 6:20, “…for which I am an ambassador in chains.” Paul is asking God to give the Ephesian brothers and sisters in Christ two important spiritual realities which are vital for every believer in Christ’s relationship with God.
Ephesians 1:16-19, 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 of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also 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 the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
In the second prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesian congregation, he continues to ask God to give them two more important spiritual realities Ephesians 3:14-19, 14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
It is very important to remember that what Paul prayed for God to do in the relationship of the believers in Ephesus, came from His own experience and relationship with God. The way we pray for others reflects how we have experienced God in our lives. Paul desired that the Ephesian Christians discover and understand what great wealth they had in Christ.
Warren Wiersbe summarizes clearly the heart of Paul’s prayers for the Ephesian believers. “In none of these prayers does Paul request material things. His emphasis is on spiritual perception and real Christian character. He does not ask God to give them what they do not have, but rather prays that God will reveal to them what they already have.”
Pastor John
