Pray Also For Me

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Ephesians 6:18b-20

This matter of praying applies to others besides ourselves. We are not alone in this battle, this conflict with doubt, dismay, fear, confusion, and uncertainty. No, there are others around us who are weaker and younger in Christ than we are, and still others who are stronger than we are, and we all are fighting this battle together. We cannot put on the armor of God for another person, but we can pray for that other person. We can call in reinforcements when we find him engaged in a struggle greater than he can handle for the moment, or perhaps for which he is not fully equipped, or if he has not yet learned how to handle his armor adequately. We are to be aware of other people's problems and pray for them, to open their eyes to danger and to help them realize how much is available to them in the armor God has given them, and to obtain specific help and strength for a specific trial.

Notice how Paul asks this for himself in this very passage. This mighty apostle has a deep sense of his need for prayer. You find another notable example of the apostle's desire for prayer in Romans 15:30-33, where he asks the Christians to pray for physical safety when he visits Jerusalem, a sensitive, tactful spirit when he speaks to the Christians there, and an opportunity to visit the city of Rome. Three specific requests, and each of them was answered exactly as Paul had asked.

I read through the prayers of Paul, and I find that he deals with many matters in his prayers. But, primarily and repeatedly, one request comes out again and again: He prays for other Christians, that their spiritual understanding might be enlightened. He asks that the eyes of their mind, their intelligence, might be opened, unveiled. This indicates the importance of understanding intelligently what life is about, what is true and what is false, what is real and what is phony. It also illustrates the power of the devil to blind and confuse, and to make things look one way when they are quite another. So the repeated prayer of the apostle is, Lord, open their eyes that their understanding may be enlightened, that their intelligence may be clarified, that they may see things as they are.

The prayer of another person can change the whole atmosphere of one person's life, oftentimes overnight. It does not always happen overnight; sometimes it takes much longer. Time is a factor which God alone controls, and he never suggests a time limit in his instructions about prayer. But he constantly calls us to this ministry of prayer, both for ourselves and for one another. When we learn to pray as God teaches us to pray, we release in our own lives and in the lives of others the immense, enormous resources of God to strengthen the spirit and give inner stability and power to meet the pressures and problems of life.

Father, I know so little about this mighty ministry of prayer. I pray, as the disciples prayed: Lord, teach us to pray.