Pray (Ephesians 6:18-20)

We can see from Paul’s words here that ongoing prayer is connected to the use of the spiritual armour that he has described. He may have in mind the idea that prayer is the equivalent of a warrior’s war cry, which was designed to frighten the enemy, and prayer is certainly an activity that the powers of darkness fear.

Pray about each piece of armour

The need of prayer indicates that our use of the armour may be faulty, or we may forget how important it is. We noticed that the pieces of armour indicated (1) the truth of the gospel, (2) the righteousness of Jesus imputed to us, (3) the sure standing of reconciliation with God, (4) the necessity of informed faith in Christ to repel the devil’s darts, (5) an understanding of salvation in all its dimensions and (6) an awareness of the Bible’s promises and instructions - the sword of the Spirit. We need to pray over these details and ask the Lord to enable us to use those pieces of armour correctly. We can express our gratitude to God for the first three items which we have permanently on, and we can ask God for wisdom regarding how to use the second set of three pieces of armour. 

We are aware of the hymn, Stand up, Stand up for Jesus. One verse in it seems to be based on this passage in Ephesians:

Put on the gospel armour,

Each piece put on with prayer;

Where duty calls, or danger,

Be never wanting there. 

Pray constantly

How often should we be praying about them? The answer of the apostle is continually. This is a reminder that we are never going to dispose of our enemy. Our warfare is not like earthly warfare where a soldier can kill or maim his opponents and so make them incapable of another attack. Since the spiritual enemies will always return, although maybe not in the same manner, we can see we why need to pray constantly. Our enemy can attack at any time. We need to know the appropriate piece of armour to use. Maybe the attack will be like a javelin thrown from a distance and we need the shield of faith to deflect it. Perhaps the attack will be an attempt to confuse our thinking and we need the helmet of salvation to keep our grasp of reality sure. Or the attack may be at close quarters, and we have to use Bible verses in a manner similar to sharp sword thrusts. 

Pray in the Spirit

Paul says that we are to pray in the Spirit. What does it mean to be in the Spirit? No doubt there are many answers to that question, including depending upon him to give us the spiritual strength to use the pieces of armour. Obviously, such prayer includes the awareness that we are children of God – he is the Spirit of adoption who wants us to have strong assurance of salvation. 

Here are four Gs that can help us understand what it means to be pray in the Spirit. First, it is prayer under his governance – things that we can pray for are mentioned in the Bible which he inspired. Second, it is prayer under his guidance – we can ask him to guide our prayers when we engage in adoration, confession, intercession and supplication. Third, prayer in the Spirit may be so unusual at times that it can only be described as groaning – those prayers are too deep for words, as Paul describes them in Romans 8. Fourth, we can only pray in the Spirit when we are not grieving him by our sins.

Pray comprehensively

Prayer is to be comprehensive. We can see this is the case from the four uses of the word ‘all’ in this passage. It is all prayer, all times, all perseverance and all saints. When we think of all prayer, perhaps the well-known acrostic ACTS comes to mind. It stands for adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. Of course, that refers to the content of our prayers, but Paul may also have in mind the manner of our praying. We can pray secretly, silently, suddenly, socially, and strategically. 

Andrew Bonar wrote in his diary in 1860: ‘I see that unless I keep up short prayer every day throughout the whole day, at intervals, I lose the spirit of prayer. I would never lose sight, any hour of the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and if I have this sight I shall be able to pray.’ If he did this every hour, then he probably had times of prayer fourteen or fifteen times a day. His method does not seem very hard to do, although it requires consistency and dedication. Five minutes of prayer every hour that we are awake!

Supplication

Paul separates, in a sense, supplication from the other forms of prayer. Or maybe he means that the attitude of supplication should mark the other ways to pray. Take adoration of God. We can imagine a prince approaching a king and a beggar approaching the king. Their manner would be very different from one another. Which one should mark God’s people? Beggars would supplicate. After all, the prince would have his own resources whereas the beggar would not have any.

The apostle also mentions that we should supplicate when we pray for other believers. Supplication highlights heart involvement. It expresses longing that God would meet the needs of his people. A beggar knows what other beggars feel, even if they are living in different countries. 

How can we pray for all saints? While we can ask God to meet their temporal needs, I suspect that Paul here is more concerned about how other believers are getting on in the spiritual battle. So he may be suggesting that we should pray that they will understand the pieces of spiritual armour and know how to use them. We should pray earnestly that none of them will be wounded by the devil’s darts.

Pray perseveringly

The apostle also mentions that we should stick at prayer when he mentions the importance of perseverance. Moody Stuart was known for his emphasis on prayer in his ministry. He once gave three directions for prayer: (1) Pray till you pray; (2) Pray till you are conscious of being heard; (3) Pray till you receive an answer. Those directions are very challenging, but they have the benefit of being clear. And as far as we can tell, they were often his experience.

Pray specifically

Paul also asks that the Ephesians will pray for him in a specific way. It is interesting that he does not ask them to pray for his release here, although he does so elsewhere. That may be because he knew that his release would involve a process, including a court case. What he requested prayer for was his immediate responsibility as far as his current circumstances were concerned. He wanted them to pray that he would be bold in declaring the gospel to whoever was in earshot. This means that he was not always feeling bold. Proclaiming the gospel might result in increased difficulties for him, but they were not his concern. Instead, he did not want to lose one battle against the devil who might have been tempting Paul to take it easy. He also realised that gospel success was connected to hearty, regular prayer by himself and others.

What is needed for successful warfare? 

It would be silly and fatal for a soldier to try and fight a tank with a piece of wood. It would be silly and futile for a soldier not to listen to the instructions of his commander. It would be silly and futile for a soldier to avoid wearing the protection provided for him. That is true in earthly warfare, and it is much truer in spiritual warfare. We cannot win if we decide to choose our own weapons and only use them. We cannot win if we ignore the instructions of our Lord. We cannot win if we do not wear all the pieces of armour. We cannot win unless we pray in the manner Paul mentions here.