Prayer

Paul was a man of prayer and he prayed for all the churches that he started, having a strong desire to see them grow in their most precious faith.  Paul was a church planter and missionary and a man that suffered much for his Lord and Savior.  Paul was a mighty man of God with a strong faith and was very bold and courageous.  

When I think about the kind of person Paul was before his conversion on the Damascus Road, I realize the power of grace and restoration on a person’s life.  This grace was applied when Paul wasn’t in the Temple, but out looking for believers in Damascus so that he could have them arrested and thrown into prison where they would suffer and, in some cases, be killed.  

I was talking to a man the other day and the conversation went in the direction of terrorist activity at the Boston Marathon and how so many were hurt, wounded and some killed.  Please pray for those that lost loved ones and those who were injured in this terrorist attack and also for the man that survived that was one of the terrorists; that he would repent and come to know the truth and be saved by the Lord’s amazing grace.  In our conversation the serial killer, Bundy, came up and I told him that he was a Christian when he died and he talked like that couldn’t happen to someone like him.  His theory was, if someone was a killer or a terrorist they couldn’t be forgiven and end up in heaven someday, but that is not true.  If you think about it, Paul was in this category of people before his conversion.

It says this about Paul, who at the time was called Saul, in Acts 8:1-3, “Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”

It also says this about Paul in Acts 9:1-2, “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

Anyone who knows about Paul, knows that he had a miraculous conversion and was radically changed, by the grace of God.  This shows that there is no one that the Lord can’t convert and change into His image and likeness, regardless of their past experiences, praise God!!  Paul was so radically changed that he was even willing to go preach the good news to the Gentiles.  

While Paul was in Ephesus, he prayed this prayer, it is found in Ephesians 3:14-21, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

God promises His love and power to all those that are a part of His family through rebirth called being born-again.  To receive these blessings it is important to stay connected to the Lord, and the body, and not try to make it on your own.  Paul says that God’s love is total.  God’s love touches every part of our lives whether we are on the mountaintop or down in the lowest valley, we cannot escape the love of God.

Paul talks about God’s love in Romans 8:37-39, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The prayer that Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:14-21, would be a great prayer for every believer to pray for the body of Christ because it is just as true and important today as it was in Paul’s day.  Something to think about! God bless you and yours and I hope you have a super day!!