Day 26 – Paul’s Ephesian Prayers, #3 – Prayer as Armor (Jim Partridge)
Ephesians 6:10-20 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the
flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
To close out this week of looking at Paul’s Ephesian prayers, we turn to the relatively familiar “spiritual armor” passage, Ephesians 6:10-20. You may remember growing up going to a Sunday school or VBS in which we were given the role of a single Roman soldier who was then outfitted with the various pieces of spiritual armor. He had the belt of truth (v.14), and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (v.17). We were told that the sword was the only “offensive” weapon at our disposal. The problem with this scenario is that we were leaving out the critical and most prominent 7th piece of armor, which is prayer (v.18-20). The other flaw in this scenario is that Paul was never meaning for this text to be taken individualistically. Roman soldiers never fought alone, they fought as part of the Roman phalanx, a division of soldiers linked together; Paul was not equipping an individual soldier, but instead outfitting an army of saints. And don’t you know…the original Greek contains 4 plural pronouns and 14 plural verbs that reflect this communal aspect of Ephesians 6: 10-17. Translated by Paul Miller:
Finally, all of you be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Together, put on the whole armor of God, that all of you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, all of you take up the whole armor of God, that together you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and together having done all, to stand firm. All of you stand therefore, together having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for all your feet, having together put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up together the shield of faith, with which all of you can together extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and together take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Well, that gives quite a different sound, doesn’t it? And it underscores looking at prayer as the vital and most important weapon in our arsenal to combat sin, seek spiritual revival both personally and corporately and to do battle with the devil. As an application for these last 3 devotionals, can I suggest first of all that you seek out a community group in our body in order to get praying seriously with other brethren. CG’s are the lifeblood of our covenant community and are the place where real ministry is done; you cannot really connect with 250-325 people at corporate worship on a given Sunday. We now have 13 CG’s and are always looking to add to that number. Contact Pastor Joseph at [email protected] to get connected.
We also have 2 standing online prayer meetings at CRPC that welcome participation. The first is our Wednesday morning prayer community that meets from 8:30-9:30 AM. We start around a scripture passage leading us into general prayers of thanksgiving and praise, then share requests from the participants and known church initiatives or needs for about 20-25 minutes. Then we pray over these needs conversationally for the last 20 minutes on the call. We end promptly at 9:30 to allow our church staff to start their Wednesday morning 9:35 staff meeting.
Monday nights at 9 pm sharp features our half hour Global Missions Prayer time that was established by the Missions Committee in 2021 and consists of a Scripture reading, brief sharing of the needs of one of our Mission Partners, then focused prayer for that partner for the bulk of the 30 minutes. This year we also will have several “open” GMP’s to pray for regions of the world or for student outreach or other missional needs that we want to support in prayer. Do join us! Zoom links are to be found in the weekly bulletin, the church-wide Friday email or via the website. For questions or access problems, contact [email protected].