All Prayer (Ephesians 6:18)
On the armor of God, the spiritual equipment that God gives us to wage the spiritual war against the forces of evil in heavenly places and against sin and the old self that still lives within us. And God has given us Christ and in his gospel there are so many benefits and privileges to wage this war. And now we come to verse 18, which I think should not be separated from the previous verse.
The last equipment was the sword of the spirit, which Paul says is the word of God. In other words, it's scripture. But we're going to see today that immediately after that, Paul says, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.
And so prayer is what we're going to look at and think about today. But the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, the Bible, never works as an offensive weapon apart from prayer. In fact, I think prayer is the atmosphere which pervades all of the equipment used, the use of the equipment in battle.In other words, it's the atmosphere in which we wage the war against our enemy. That's why Paul says praying at all times in the spirit. You cannot win this battle. You won't even know how to or when to exercise these weapons of the gospel, this armor of God, apart from prayer. Prayer, which is coming to God as we are and pouring our hearts to him with everything that's going on. And Paul says with all prayer and supplication at all times. And so I want to just think for a few minutes about this together. Prayer is the atmosphere in which we wage war against our enemy. And prayer is an attitude of dependence. It's an attitude of saying to God, I cannot do life without you. I cannot go about my day without your blessing. I cannot spend my day without thinking of you and being close to you.
You know, so much of our life we pray, you know, token prayers. You know, we maybe pray a very brief word of prayer in the morning, if we remember, or, you know, before bed, just like a very brief prayer, or we pray the Lord's prayer. But I think the kind of prayer that Paul is describing here is prayer at all times. It's an attitude of the heart. It's also just like a puncturing of our day, a planning of our day. So there are moments, planned moments, when we come to God in prayer. But the first thing I want to talk about is that prayer is a priority. It's a priority. Prayer is too important to postpone. Your life is too busy, and too important not to pray. Because not to pray is to go through life under your own power, and own resources, and to rely on your own equipment, so to speak, instead of on God.
Martin Luther, who was a reformer some 500 years ago, said, I have so much to do that I will spend the first few hours of the day in prayer. Now you don't have to start the whole day, you know, through three hours of prayer, but you can start the day by taking a few moments, maybe minutes, maybe 10, 15, 20 minutes. Start small and just grow from there, and ask God to bless your day, and to be with you. Pray biblical prayers. But the secret is to realize how desperate your need is to confide yourself to your elder brother Jesus, and to come as a needy child of God before a gracious Heavenly Father. The thing that animates this, the thing that makes this possible, is the reality that Jesus, who lived a perfect life, died on your behalf and my behalf, and rose again, is now seated up in heaven, in the place of highest authority in heaven and on earth. And no request of yours is too little, or too small, or unimportant for him.
Now having said that, I think there is a way of prayer where we only come to God with, you know, personal crises. We only come to him when maybe we have a medical test that we're anxious about, or when a crisis hits, or when death is near, or before a difficult exam, or when we feel out of our depth, or when we feel scared. And that's okay too. Of course, God wants us to come to him in those moments of crises. But the way that Paul is describing this here, prayer in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication, is more about a constant communication. It's more about being in the Holy Spirit, being in communion and in friendship with the Holy Spirit.
As Jude puts it in Jude verse 20, building yourself up in your most holy faith, that's his definition of praying in the Holy Spirit. And so prayer is not something that we want to do just when we are in crisis. Prayer is the atmosphere in which we want to live our Christian lives. And that means that we need to also understand that unanswered prayers are often what we think are unanswered prayers, are actually God's way of answering us. For example, that when we ask to be healed, or we ask for a job, or we ask for God to help us through something really hard, and it doesn't immediately happen, it doesn't mean that God is not answering our prayers. One writer says that the problem is often not in our lack of faith, or not with God's lack of power to answer us.
It's actually that God has chosen a different path to grow us and sanctify us in our life right now. Sometimes what we think are non-answers to prayer, or unanswered prayers, are actually God saying, I have put you in this position because I love you, and only by experiencing weakness and brokenness will you know my strength and my power. Sometimes God says no, or seems to withhold or take away something from us, not because he is upset with us, but precisely because he loves us. You know, good parents love their kids unconditionally, but that doesn't mean that they'll give them anything or everything that they ask for. Parents love their kids so much, and they have the right to take away any or all the toys that are in their kids' best interests. Think about it this way, if you heard that your kid's favorite special blanket had been recalled by the manufacturer because it has toxic materials, wouldn't you take it away from them? Of course you would share in their sadness, in their sense of loss, you would cuddle them when they're crying, but you would still take it away because it could end up killing them. You love them too much to risk it. And sometimes too, God takes away our favorite toys because they're hampering our spiritual growth. He loves us too much, and he is sovereign, and he wants us to grow in him. And so he's not being mean or capricious, but he is doing what is best for us. And prayer in the Spirit helps us to see things from that perspective. Prayer in the Spirit is thinking God's thoughts and letting Scripture and truth from God's Word shape our hearts, and then we begin to see things differently. We begin to realize, no, no, no, God is actually answering me, but maybe in a different way than I expected.
One last word. Paul says, praying at all times.And I think this is an encouragement for us to come to God with all kinds of prayers, and at all kinds of times. Oftentimes we pray very small prayers, you know, God bless this or that, God help me with this thing or that thing today. Or we pray very general prayers in very large, big ways that never really actually engage with the specific details of our lives. But I think a good practice is to start the day by thinking about what's going to happen in it, and praying God's blessing and asking for God to be with us in the events of what's going to happen in the day. Sometimes we pray for, you know, things that annoy us or for the small sins in our lives. But do we really trust God enough to pray big prayers, big prayers against those big ingrained sinful habits in our lives? Do we pray for our friends? Do we pray for the people of our church? Do we pray for our neighborhood? Or do we just pray all the time about ourselves and maybe our children and our financial needs and the things right in front of us? And here Paul is encouraging us to pray big prayers, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.
One encouragement is to invite God into every part of your day, your joys and your sorrows, your times of trouble and your times of peace, morning and evening, and maybe even afternoon. And variety, I think, is really helpful. Maybe think of prayer as I'm just going to sing a song and worship the Lord from my heart. Maybe I'll play it or I'll sing it with the lyrics in front of me with my own voice. Maybe it's taking a minute to read a psalm and praying that Maybe it's calling a friend and praying with them. Maybe it's going to a church prayer meeting. Maybe it's reading an old book with God-centered prayers. Maybe it's taking a moment to remember your blessings and giving thanks for them one by one. Or maybe it's just talking to God from the heart about what you're going through. The key thing to remember is that He is gracious and He loves us more than we even love ourselves and He wants us to come to Him. And this is the atmosphere in which we must wage the spiritual warfare, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.
