Pray Confidently
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. . .
This coming Sunday, September 10th, we will start a new sermon series in the book of Acts called Through the Church. With this study, we hope to be assured that God advances his mission to make Jesus Christ known through local churches. Within the flow of the Acts narrative we meet one of the churches Paul ministered to, and, through which God, makes Jesus known to all the earth: the church in Ephesus. In the letter Paul wrote to them he gives a moving prayer report (Ephesians 3:14-21). Paul prays that God, by his Spirit, would give the Ephesians strength to know Christ’s mighty heart for them, so that they might become all that God intends. In verses 14-15 of his prayer report, Paul gives the Ephesians three reasons he prays with confidence to the Father on their behalf. For these reasons we too can pray expectantly to the Father for our church.
1. We pray to him who loves us.
In verse 14 Paul reports, “I bow my knees before the Father.” Simply, Paul prays to the Father. In this letter, God the Father is the one who, in love, predestined the Ephesians for adoption into his family (1:5) and made them his heirs (1:11). Believers like us, Paul, and the Ephesians can pray confidently to our loving, Heavenly Father because he set his never-giving-up love on us before the foundation of the world.
2. We pray to him who is near to us.
Paul opens his prayer report with the phrase, “For this reason.” This phrase picks up a thought from earlier in the letter where Paul reminds the Ephesian church that, in Christ, God has brought them near to him (2:13, 16, 18, 19-22). We who believe in Christ can expectantly pray to the Father because he is near to us in Christ by the Spirit.
3. We pray to him who is the mightiest.
Last, Paul reminds the Ephesians that he bows before the One from whom every family is named. What does Paul mean? Paul’s point is that he prays to the one who is the creator of the universe and who is able to exercise authority over all he has created. Those of us who have placed our hope on Jesus's life, death, and resurrection can pray assuredly because Father is the mightiest.
At Christ the King we can pray confidently for our church because our Father loves us, is near to us, and is the mightiest.
