John White says prayer needs the fuel of the word of God to really burn brightly.
White, author of Daring to Draw Near and many other books, says the apostle Paul's great prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 shows that "his mind was so soaked in divine truth" that it ignited his prayers for the Ephesian Christians.
For a strong prayer life, we need "some solid knowledge about the nature and character of God and of his Christ and their intervention in human history".
To pray effectively, we need faith and hope, White says. Faith and hope are built through storing scriptures in our minds and hearts.
By reading scripture, we see how God has acted in the past. We gain a greater understanding of God's plan for us and for the world. We read about God's promises to us. We see how God has fulfilled many of those promises already.
White says we are to meditate on the scriptures and see how they apply to us and to the people we are praying for. Indeed, that is how the great prayer warrior George Muller prayed as he built a network of orphanages in Victorian England.
Like White, I cherish Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3. His love for the Ephesians and his desire to see them grow spiritually strong shines in these few verses. It is a prayer to return to again and again to inspire our own prayers.
This prayer touches on Paul's keen desire that the Ephesians will realize the great power that is theirs in Christ. He prays that God will give them inner strength through the Holy Spirit.
Most of all, he prays that they will understand how great God's love is for them.
In White's eyes, we must keep God's love before us as we pray for others. We need to pray that the people we love will know how much God loves them.
As we grasp something of God's love for us, Paul says in Ephesians 3:19 we will be "made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God".
Scripture helps open our minds to this love of God. Then, we can pray with great power for others.
White, author of Daring to Draw Near and many other books, says the apostle Paul's great prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 shows that "his mind was so soaked in divine truth" that it ignited his prayers for the Ephesian Christians.
For a strong prayer life, we need "some solid knowledge about the nature and character of God and of his Christ and their intervention in human history".
To pray effectively, we need faith and hope, White says. Faith and hope are built through storing scriptures in our minds and hearts.
By reading scripture, we see how God has acted in the past. We gain a greater understanding of God's plan for us and for the world. We read about God's promises to us. We see how God has fulfilled many of those promises already.
White says we are to meditate on the scriptures and see how they apply to us and to the people we are praying for. Indeed, that is how the great prayer warrior George Muller prayed as he built a network of orphanages in Victorian England.
Like White, I cherish Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3. His love for the Ephesians and his desire to see them grow spiritually strong shines in these few verses. It is a prayer to return to again and again to inspire our own prayers.
This prayer touches on Paul's keen desire that the Ephesians will realize the great power that is theirs in Christ. He prays that God will give them inner strength through the Holy Spirit.
Most of all, he prays that they will understand how great God's love is for them.
In White's eyes, we must keep God's love before us as we pray for others. We need to pray that the people we love will know how much God loves them.
As we grasp something of God's love for us, Paul says in Ephesians 3:19 we will be "made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God".
Scripture helps open our minds to this love of God. Then, we can pray with great power for others.
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