Ephesians

Our Prayers and God’s Promise

We must immediately add that God answers prayer according to His promises—not necessarily according to our wishes and our timetable. This is so necessary to say, because there are people who say that if we have “enough faith,” God gives us whatever we ask for. First, this kind of thinking reduces God to a mere genie in a bottle, doing human bidding, granting human wishes. Second, this false idea of prayer often results in disappointment and gives rise to the widespread belief that prayer is ineffectual. The truth is, God answers every prayer that is based upon a promise.

Prayer does not start with us; it starts with God. God must say He will do something before we are free to ask Him to do it. That, of course, is how the father-child relationship is supposed to work. No parent commits himself to give his children everything they want and anything they ask for. He makes it clear that he will do certain things and not do other things. In the realm of those limits, the father commits himself to answer his children’s requests. So it is with God. God has given promises and they form the only proper basis for our requests in prayer.

This is what Paul means by his reminder in Ephesians 6:18 that we are to pray on all occasions in the Spirit. Here again is a point of great misunderstanding about prayer. Many take Paul’s phrase, “in the Spirit,” as though it were descriptive of the emotions we should have when we pray. They think it is necessary to be emotionally moved before prayer can be effective. Certainly, prayer often does engage our emotions at a deep level, but emotionalism is not the key to effective prayer—and it is certainly not what is meant by this phrase, “in the Spirit.”

To pray in the Spirit means to pray according to the promises that the Spirit has given and according to the character of God which the Spirit has made known. God has never promised to answer just any prayer, but He does promise to answer prayer in a way that He has carefully outlined for us. He does so invariably and without partiality. He is no respecter of persons in this matter of prayer. In the realm of our personal needs (those needs that call forth most of our prayers), the need for wisdom, power, patience, grace, or strength, God promises to answer our prayers immediately.

It is important to remember that prayer is not just something we do for ourselves. We must remember to support others in the spiritual battle. We are not alone on this battleground of doubt, fear, confusion, anxiety, and temptation. There are others around us who are weaker and younger in Christ than we are, and still others who are stronger than we are. Thus we must fight this battle together on our knees. 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 our brother or sister is overwhelmed by the enemy.

Praying for others is called intercession, and Paul lays out the principle of intercessory prayer in a very personal way in Ephesians 6:19-20: “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, 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.” A parallel passage where Paul asks fellow Christians for prayer is Romans 15:30-32:

I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.

In this passage, Paul asks his fellow Christians to pray for three things on his behalf: (1) Paul’s physical safety when he visits Jerusalem; (2) a sensitive, tactful spirit when he speaks to the Christians there; and (3) an opportunity to visit the believers in the city of Rome. Here are three specific requests—and the record of Scripture is that each of them was answered exactly as Paul had asked.

At the same time, we have to acknowledge that God’s answers to prayer don’t always come in the form or at the time that we expect. Someone has wisely said, “God is never late—but He’s never early, either.” It’s true. God is always right on time. He may not seem to be on time by your watch and mine, but that’s because we are impatient and don’t know all the facts, not because God is late. Time is a factor that God alone controls.

God constantly calls us to a 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 resources of God—resources to strengthen the spirit and embolden the soul to meet the pressures and problems of life.