Pauls’ Pattern for Prayer

Parents love their children. When we pray do we pray the best for them or just temporary relief?

We can produce a laundry list of externals to pray for such as finances, protection, healing and help.

But somehow, the list doesn't really express it. Jesus' heart for His people runs much deeper than material and emotional needs, and it's His heart that we want to touch and reflect as we pray.

What does God want for your children.? Begin to study the prayers of Paul and see.

In Ephesians 3:14-16, Paul began one of his most beautiful prayers. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man."

My prayer so often begins with externals. I bow my knees unto the Father and ask Him to grant a host of material and circumstantial needs. Since we live so close with our children, we know the nitty-gritty of their lives, and that's where our focus tends to go.

But Paul didn't have this luxury. He was separated from his churches by a great distance. He didn't know their day-to-day problems, so his prayers had to reach much farther — much deeper — much higher. God, I think, arranged it this way.

Paul's prayers teach us to focus first on the heart: the soul, the "inner man." Let’s not focus primarily on the physical things or changes in circumstance. Our children need mighty hearts. When we're strong inside, we can handle great trials. When the glory of God fills us, its joy and beauty will spill over to meet the difficulties in our paths. That friend struggling with temptation; that sister who has cancer; that young man taking exams: what they need most is to be strengthened with true might, by the Spirit of God, in the deepest places of their hearts.