April 10, 2013

Ephesians 1:15-19 ¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 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 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 his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 

A part of my morning routine is to spend time in prayer over our Sunday School class's prayer list.  The process of passing around a prayer list at small group on Sunday mornings probably dates back to the first Southern Baptist church ever established.  Bulletin- check.  Offering plates- check.  Dates for potlucks- checks.  Prayer request sheet- check.

Here is a list of items on this week's list:
Physical healing 5x
Traveling safety 1x
Family problems 2x
Praise 1x
Spiritual issues 2x

Contrast this to Paul's prayer list: spiritual wisdom, revelation and enlightment.  Couple this with yesterday's verses about a mind being goverened by the Spirit not the flesh and the message for me is to make sure I spend enough time in prayer for the foundational portions of the Christian life.

The physical healing, traveling protection and marital reconcilation should NEVER be neglected in prayer, but wisdom, insight, increased capacity to love others, spiritual discipline, etc. should not be overlooked during prayer time.

Why don't we ask others to pray for the spiritual side of ourselves?  Do we not want others to know we are spiritually weak?  Would that type of prayer request come across as selfish or uber-holy?

"Please pray for my cousin who has cancer", but seldom "please pray that I will increase in the knowledge of God's love for me".