Praying Like Paul

First off, have to say that the KCM CP chapter retreat was awesome. I definitely invite all who did not attend this year to attend next year's. I really was thinking of inviting Sam Ock but thought his presence might've been a slight distraction. Perhaps I did not give enough credit to the rest of KCM and I know Sam would have enjoyed it. In any case, one of the biggest thing we took away from the retreat was to pray like Paul did. Why don't we feel like our prayers are getting answered? Well God tends to glorify Himself in everything so praying for things that won't glorify Him may not work out so well. Paul was someone who prayed regarding God's glory; however, and so Pastor Robert was expounding on how praying like Paul started answering his own prayers much more as well.

Philippians 1:9-11
"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."

This is obviously a more God-glorifying prayer than "Please let me do well on my test tomorrow."

However, we see that there are other times where Paul offers his prayers to other groups. In Ephesians 1:17-19 it says (I'm including "I pray" in here because it's in my NIV but the website I'm getting bible verses from has omitted it and it's just easier to understand that way):

"(I pray) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might"

It's easy to see a correlation between this prayer in Ephesians and the one in Philippians. A "spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him", etc and a "love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment" are pretty similar in the ideas of themselves. However, Paul uses them to a different degree. The one from Philippians is so that we may "approve what is excellent". The one in Ephesians is so that we may "that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you". Slight differences but worth noting.

Just to expound upon it more, the Philippians prayer seems to focus more on discernment, meaning being able to judge well and tell what is right from wrong. The Ephesians prayer, while also having to do with knowledge, is more fundamental and basically wishes for your knowledge of how great God is and His great glory.

Moving right along...there's yet another one of Paul's prayers in Colossians 1:9-12

"And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light."

Yet again, we see a prayer of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And yet again, the application is different, taking a route similar to Ephesians 4:1 and Philippians 1:27, calling them "to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord". This has more to deal with bearing good fruit. Paul later says to have endurance and patience, along with joy.

In 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

"To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

There's no mention of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in this prayer. The main prayer was a what I thought was a bi-product of that wisdom which was being "worthy of his calling". This prayer is similar to the one in Thessalonians, yet applies more directly to God's glory instead of what being worthy applies to us for (which was the previous prayer in Colossians).

Finally, we have the last of Pauls' prayers explicitly in the Bible in Philemon 6:

"and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ."

I think Paul is praying that Philemon's evangelism may be good, conveying the whole gospel (full knowledge).




I hope this run-through wasn't too tedious but it was something I wanted to share and do for myself, so here's the summary:

Paul's cited prayers:
1. that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent
2. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you
3. that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
4. that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you
5. that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

Conclusions to take away from this compilation is that praying for knowledge, discernment, understanding, and wisdom will allow you to know God better and thus allow you know what is good in the sight of God. Another one is to be worthy of God's calling, bearing good fruit and also glorifying God. And the last is that we may share our knowledge well, telling of the gospel in its entirety. You may recognize that these ideas kind of lead to one another; that knowledge and discernment will lead to being able to be worthy of God, and being worthy of God means you are sharing the gospel, etc. in an endless cycle. But it's probably better to pray for all of them!