I have been reading in Ephesians lately. It is probably my favorite book in the Bible, because it is in this book that I learned to pray with power. You have to understand, I was raised in the church. I came to know God at a very early age and knew about prayer from the time I could say, “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food.” My prayer to receive Christ was a genuine heartfelt prayer made with the faith of a child. However, it wasn’t until after Bill’s accident that I truly learned the depth of God’s care for me. I was a young bride sitting at the bedside of my comatose husband. I had never been so alone. Of course, there were family and friends around me, but I was the one crying myself to sleep at night scared to death. For the first time in my life, I had no idea what or how to pray. My tears were my prayers, and the only word I could utter was “help.” At that moment, the Holy Spirit literally covered me with his peace. It was a tangible and powerful moment in which God became more real to me than life itself. My husband was not instantly healed. My circumstances did not change. In fact, the healing process took years. The friends dropped away, and soon it was me and God and my brain injured husband who was about 4 years old mentally. But in that desperate place God became my companion, and the communion with him was so sweet that the painful walk I was on paled in comparison.
Fast forward a few years. Hannah was 5, Aaron 4, William 2 and Peter was a newborn. I was a stay at home mom, who was frazzled but loved my job. I was praying for my young family daily, but the more I prayed the more frazzled I became. Exhausted really. I prayed for a job for my husband. I prayed for a house with space. I prayed for a second vehicle so I could get to the park with the kids. Don’t get me wrong, these were sincere prayers, and I believe God honored them because he loved me so. But the power was missing. The power I had known in my darkest hour, when all I could pray was help, wasn’t happening. About this time, I met a woman who took me under her wing and taught me to pray. She started with Ephesians, and my eyes were opened to the word of God as a tool of prayer.
Why pray my own will? Why not pray God’s will? Made sense, but how do I know God’s will? I mean, I just figured if it was his will it would happen, if not it would not. So I prayed for what I thought was right, not knowing that there was a better way. What I learned was this…that if you pray HIS words you are praying HIS will. To say his words out loud back to him is one more way his word does not return void. Not only that, but it changed the way I see things, it enlarged my view of his grace and mercy. It enabled me to understand things he would show me, and brought my communion with him to that sweet secret place no matter the circumstances. When I began to pray for others, it was me who received the blessing! He still gives me prayers to pray for others…even now as I write this at 3:00 a.m. he wakes me to join him in his love for my family and friends… as well as strangers. It is more than I can express with words. I so wish everyone could have this forever companion…it is my most heartfelt prayer. This is how it goes. I find a scripture and I insert the names of whomever he puts on my heart.
This morning I am once again in Ephesians. Chapter 3 verse 14. “For this reason, I kneel before you father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of your glorious riches that you may strengthen my dear friend with power through your spirit in his inner being, so that Christ may dwell in his heart through faith. And I pray that he, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and how long and how deep is the love of Christ and that he would know this love that surpasses knowledge…that my friend would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of you God. Now to you Lord, who are able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine according to your power that is at work in all of us, to you be the glory throughout the generations. Amen.”
This is but one small section…the whole book of Ephesians is full of such passages that far surpass anything I could pray on my own. Other books in the Bible are all full as well…an unending supply of prayers at my fingertips. The words of God spoken for those I love as he directs me to pray. I am joining his heart , where the power of love resides. And in praying, I am stirred. I am filled up to overflowing. I carry this love. I pour it out because the supply never ends. It is the most real, tangible, thing…try it and see what I mean.