PRAYER POWER UNLIMITED

J. Oswald Sanders

Paul, Man of Prayer

Praying always (Eph 6:18, KJV)

We learn truth best when we see it expressed in a human personality, and this is true of prayer. Of all men of all ages, few, if any, have excelled the apostle Paul in the depth and the effectiveness of their prayer lives. He was at his best in his prayers. In no area of life did he set a more noble and stimulating example. We must be grateful for the self-revelation and insight into prayer with which his letters are studied.

Nowhere does he attempt to explain the possibility or defend the reasonableness of praying. He just takes it for granted and proceeds on the assumption that it is the normal and inevitable function of the regenerate soul, and the natural expression of the spiritual life.

He saw prayer as flowing naturally from the relationship of fatherhood and sonship that exists between God and His children. Because we are sons, He has sent His Spirit into our hearts, as a result of which we cry with great naturalness, “Abba, Father!” (Gal 4:6). This sense of fatherhood provides a rational basis for prayer, for it is perfectly normal for children to have uninhibited intercourse with their father.

To Paul, the supernatural presented no problems. After his own supernatural conversion, anything became possible. To expect the intervention of God in his own affairs and the affairs of men was axiomatic, and he acted consistently with that expectation. He knew no circumstances for which prayer was not appropriate.

In the words of Fleming Stevenson, Paul believed that “prayer is not an arbitrary provision for temporary circumstances, but that it is fixed in the way of God, and in harmony with the settled relations of the world and the laws of human conduct.”¹ Accordingly, it was his conviction that nothing was beyond the reach of prayer except that which was out of the will of God.

Paul’s prayers did not just happen. A study of the prayers scattered through Paul’s letters will show that they were anything but careless and haphazard. Although they follow no formal pattern, they show clear evidence of careful and reverent thought, and they were doubtless the fruit of much devout meditation as well as the fruit of the Spirit’s inspiration, “Study your prayers,” said Robert Murray McCheyne. “A great part of my time is spent in getting my heart in tune for prayer.”²

CHARACTERISTICS OF PAUL’S PRAYERS

Let us note some of the characteristics of Paul’s prayers.

1. They were full of Christ. It is to this fact that they owe so much of their warmth and stimulating power. An old divine contended that our prayers are so cold and dry because there is so little of Christ in them, a charge that can be laid to all too many prayers, both private and public.
   It has been suggested that to stand at Paul’s prison door must have been somewhat akin to listening in to our Lord’s high priestly prayer in the upper room. What depth of adoration, what height of thanksgiving, what breadth of intercession they express. “Sometimes his whole soul flames up to heaven like incense on the altar fire.” Periodically he bursts out into irrepressible doxology of which Christ is the object.
2. They were unceasing. I “do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers” (Eph 1:16). “Always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all” (Phil 1:4). “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you” (Col 1:9). It may be objected that such language is exaggeration. Perhaps the meaning would be clearer if we used incessant instead of “have not ceased.” An incessant cough is a constantly recurring cough, and this is the idea behind Paul’s statements. These Christians were constantly on his heart, and whenever his mind was free, it naturally turned to prayer for them, as a compass needle turns to the magnetic pole.
   Dr. Leon Mooris is quoted in Heart-Cry for Revival:
   It is not possible for us to spend all our time with the words of prayer on our lips, but it is possible for us to be all our days in the spirit of prayer, realizing our dependence upon God for all that we have and are, realizing something of His presence with us wherever we may be, and yielding ourselves continually to Him for the doing of His will. Where there is such an inward state, it will find outward expression in verbal prayer, and in this connection we should notice the frequent ejaculatory prayers throughout Paul’s letters. Prayer was so natural and so continual with the great Apostle that it found its way inevitably into his correspondence.³
3. They were replete with thanksgiving. He found much material for thanksgiving in those for whom he prayed. In this he has something important to say to us, for most of us find it much easier to see things with which we can find fault. Typical causes for thanksgiving were the widespread knowledge of the faith of the Roman Christians (Rom 1:8); the enlarged faith and deepening love of the Colossian believers (Col 1:3-5); and God’s deliverance of him from “the body of this death” (Rom 7:24-25).
4. His prayers were unselfish. Most of them were concerned with other people and their needs, especially the needs of his converts and the young churches. Intercession was his lifeblood. His prayers for his converts not only evidenced his deep pastoral concern but revealed what he deemed to be their paramount needs. Examples of the qualities and graces he coveted for them were that their love would abound in knowledge (Phil 1:9-11); that they would be filled with the knowledge of His will (Col 1:9-12); that they would prove worthy of their calling (2 Thess 1:11-12); that they would be kept clean from sin (2 Cor 13:7); that they would be united in love and encouraged (Col 2:2). He carried his converts on his heart.
5. His prayers were affectionate and sincere. How many of us could say with Paul, “God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:8); or, “I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could which that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom 9:23)?
6. His prayers were covetous — in the highest sense. He craved prayer for himself. He was in no sense self-sufficient. He regarded prayer as a joint operation. “You also joining in helping us through your prayers” (2 Cor 1:11). The best remuneration he could receive was the prayer interest of those who had been blessed through his ministry. He saw the prayers of his friends as a determining factor in his service. He asked the Ephesians to pray for bold utterance for him (Eph 6:18-20), and he asked the Colossians to pray for an open door (Col 4:2-4). He asked prayer for deliverance (2 Thess 3:1-2; Philem 22).
7. His prayers were strenuous. The words he employed reveal his prayers’ true nature. He referred to his prayer for the Colossians as being a conflict, a struggle — “I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf” (Col 2:1). The word here is agonia. Elsewhere, it is used of a laboring man at his daily work (Col 1:29); an athlete competing in the arena (1 Cor 9:25); a soldier fighting on the battlefield (1 Tim 6:12). The whole picture is one of intense involvement. He described his prayer as wrestling in Ephesians 6:12 (KJV).

Bishop Handley Moule tells of

a devoted Sun day schoolteacher who was the means, under God, of bringing scholar after scholar, with always growing frequency, to the feet of Jesus in loving conversation, evidenced by a new life of love and consistency. After her death, her simple diary was found to contain, among other entities, the three following: “‘Resolved to pray for each scholar by name.’ ‘Resolved to wrestle in prayer for each scholar by name.’ ‘Resolved to wrestle for each by name and to expect an answer.’”⁴

It was thus and without ceasing that Paul prayed.

PRAYER

O God, who through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul hast caused the light of the gospel to shine throughout the world; Grant, we beseech Thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness to Thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine he taught, through Jesus Christ our Lord. ANONYMOUS

QUESTIONS

1. From Paul’s prayers, make a list of the things he prayed for those for whom he prayed, and follow him in your own intercessions.
2. What was the relation of Paul’s secret prayer life to his life of public ministry?

Note

¹R. E. Speer, Paul, the All-round Man (New York: Revell, 1909), p 91
²Ibid., p 97
³S. F. Olford, Heart-Cry for Revival (Westwood, N. J.: Revell, 1962), pp 83-84
⁴Speer, p 92