Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

It is obvious here that Paul is describing the content of his prayers for the Ephesians. We might be surprised that he does so, but whether we are or not, the fact is that he was guided by the Holy Spirit to say what was on his heart as he prayed. It should be obvious to us that one reason for this is that Paul’s method is one that God wants us to imitate. Of course, this could be said of all the prayers in the Bible. God wants our prayers to him to be marked by spiritual intelligence, and the best place to find such information is in the Bible. Why did Paul pray in this way? Going by the context, there were four reasons why Paul prayed in this way. The first reason is that the Ephesian Christians were believers in Jesus. Paul mentions how he heard about their faith, which means that he is not referring to what he had known about their faith when he was present with them in Ephesus. Maybe he had been told about the current state of the Ephesians by Epaphras or by another visitor t...

The famous Scottish preacher and author, Andrew Bonar, said this about Psalm 23: ‘ The Church has so exclusively (we might say) applied this Psalm to herself, as almost to forget that her shepherd, that Great Shepherd, once needed it and was glad to use it. The Lamb, now in the midst of the throne ready to lead us to its living fountains of water, was once led along by his Father.’ Maybe we find his assertion unusual. Yet we know that some psalms describe Jesus because the New Testament tells us that they do. Psalm 22 was on his lips when he was on the cross and Peter tells us in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost that Psalm 16 was a prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus. There is also Psalm 110 which is mentioned several times in the New Testament. Other psalms picture Jesus because they depict a very devoted person. Such a psalm is Psalm 1, with its focus on the righteous man who meditates on and lives according to the word of God. Another psalm in this category would be Psalm 1...