Paul's Prayer

My  mother, a staunch prayer warrior, once told me that when we pray to God, we should always try our best to base our prayers on scriptures because the Word of God is The Only Truth.She said that prayers with rich scriptural references are the most powerful and effective ones because we are confessing God's promises in our lives through His word.

One such prayer is this prayer from Paul for the Ephesians. When I read that a few readings back, I was so struck with the words that Paul used in his prayer that I really had to share it. Currently, I am reading a book my mom lent me entitled Authority of the Believer by Kenneth Hagin and he talks about Paul's prayer here.

It's a pretty thin book with only 31 pages. But I will share about its first chapter for now, and it is about Paul's prayers in Ephesians 1 & 3. To quote Kenneth Hagin:

The prayers in the first and third chapters of Ephesians are given of the Holy Spirit. Paul is praying, but he didn't pray these prayers for the church of Ephesus only. These prayers can apply to you also. They are Spirit-anointed prayers, and belong to us too since they are given by the Spirit.

He said that the turning point in his life came when he prayed these prayers over a thousand times for himself. He would read them aloud and would say "me" whenever Paul would say "you."

I tried this myself and it is a beautiful prayer. SO I will share it here and pray that you too can make this yours. If you want to pray for someone as well, you may replace "me" with the name of the person that you are praying for. This is taken from Ephesians 1 & 3, New Living Translation version.

Father God, we humbly come into Your presence, asking You for spiritual wisdom and insight so that I might grow in my knowledge of You. I pray that my heart will be flooded with light so that I can understand the confident hope You have given to those You have called—Your holy people who are Your rich and glorious inheritance.

 I also pray that I will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe You.

I pray that from Your glorious, unlimited resources You will empower me with inner strength through Your Spirit. That Christ will make His home in my heart. That my roots will grow down into God’s love and keep me strong.  And may I have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Your love is. May I experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. That I will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through Your mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to You in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.