This week's TFTD follows on last week's reflections on putting on the whole armour of God. It's too easy to stop at 'the good bit' and not read how Paul ends the letter. The endings of Paul's letters are never casual. They are carefully worded towards encouragement, and well worth our taking time to read to the end.
Monday
Eph. 6.18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
It’s impossible to over-pray, seems to Paul’s point! Having described the Christian’s armour and the seriousness of spiritual struggles, Paul urges the Christian community to pray in the Spirit. Life in the Spirit is about living a life of trustful dependence on the power and grace and leading of the Holy Spirit. To pray is to speak our hearts and minds, and have these same words, thoughts and feelings interpreted by the Spirit. Any prayer anywhere, diversity of need finds voice in a diversity of prayers.
Tuesday
Eph. 6. 18b “With this in mind always be alert and keep on praying for all the saints.”
In this one verse Paul uses the all-inclusive vocabulary four times. “Pray on all occasions…all kinds of prayers…always alert…praying for all the saints.” Prayer is not so much a good option as an absolute necessity; not something we do when it suits us, but a way of living, thinking and seeing the world. “Be alert”, keep your eyes open, be faithful, and keep your heart open to the needs “of all the saints.”
Wednesday
Eph. 6.19 “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.”
This is one of those moving moments of confession from Paul. He’s human like the rest of us. It’s hard for an anxious person to speak fearlessly, and Paul makes no secret of his own struggles with self-doubt and fear of failure. When it comes to mission, the words of our prayers have a way of putting words into the mouths of those for whom we pray, as they try to live and speak faithfully for Christ.
Thursday
Eph 6. “Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
Paul’s fears were real, and he acknowledged them, not as failures of faith but as reasons to go on trusting and depending on the God who had saved and commissioned him as ‘an ambassador in chains”. While it’s true that we are saved by grace, and have new life in the Spirit, Paul’s prayer request is a reminder that we have the treasure of the gospel in jars of clay – fragile, and maybe even cracked!
2 Cor. 4.7 is the bonus verse this week! “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God, and not from us.” By prayer we hold up those for whom we pray, before the grace that is sufficient and the peace beyond understanding, and the love from which nothing can separate.
Friday
Eph.6.21 “Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord will tell you everything so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.”
Transparency mattered to Paul. People should know what he is about, how his health is, what he needs, how the work of God is going. No PR stunts, no self-marketing, no selective narration of the facts of his story. That as it should be, not least our own transparency with ourselves, an honest acknowledging of how it is with us. Paul saw the Ephesians as a community who would understand him, and therefore pray for him. To do that well, Tychicus is to put them in the picture about Paul’s situation.
Saturday
Eph. 6.22 “I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you might know how we are, and that he may encourage you.”
This verse is pure Paul! Sending messengers to keep the gospel network pinging with news, and hoping that by the prayers of the Ephesians, his role as an ambassador in chains might even go viral. By which is meant, when a community pray together with one heart, and identify with the work others are doing for Christ, and share the news with other communities, then prayer becomes a chain reaction of faith at work, love demonstrated, and hope encouraged. Paul understood how the spiritual dynamics of prayer work to sustain dynamic communities of the Spirit.
Sunday
Eph. 6. 23 “Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”
Peace, faith and love, but the greatest of these is love. Three times Paul emphasises the relation of love to faith, and of grace to loving trust. We love because he first loved us, and Paul prays for grace to fall upon all those who pledge, and intend to live a life of undying love for Christ. Of course we fail and fall, our love is inconstant and the rhythm of sin and forgiveness, complacency and passion, wrong desire and right desire, is real enough for each of us. Hence Paul’s prayer, which we can take as a personal benediction tumbling down the centuries from Paul to us, here and now:
“Grace also to me, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, so that I too may go on loving our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” Amen.
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